Saturday, September 08, 2007

4-Wheelers, ATVs, and Mini-Cycles

I really don't care if you want to ride your motorcycle without a helmet. Go to it. I think you should waive your rights to heroic care if you mash your head-in but don't die, and you should be required to be an organ donor, but that's about it. Feel the wind in your hair. Live life with gusto and go out like a roman candle.

If you think it's cute for junior to ride his ATV at 4 years old, or go for a joyride on the back of your motorcycle, or learn how to ride by himself so he can be a big motocross X-games star then you are a fucking moron. If you let him do this without a helmet then DCS should take your child from you. Sorry. I don't care how upset you are when he gets his head mashed, the child no longer belongs to you because you are a moron and incapable of taking care of a box-turtle, much less a small human.

ATVs, 4-wheelers, trampolines, motorcycles = HELMETS= job security for me. This is not, however, the kind of job security I want.

14 comments:

  1. You are so RIGHT in this. Recently in Podunk, a set of parents allowed their two young children to ride on one of those off-road 4-wheeler things---and the children got into an accident by hitting a fence----and the 4 year old died. Stories like that break my heart.

    One of the worst (and preventable) accidents I ever saw in my ER days was a child brought in with deep lacerations all over her body. She had been jumping on a trampoline----and nobody was "spotting" her----and she jumped too far the wrong way and landed on a glass acquarium which shattered into glass shards, hence the lacerations. I hate trampolines.

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  2. And don't forget the motorcycle of watersport fun, the jet ski.

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  3. I personally like when said recreational equipment precludes them from paying for adequate health insurance for their kids...

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  4. It's a cold cruel thing to say, but Think of it as Evolution in Action.

    It's a good thing when people that stupid don't live to breed.

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  5. georgeH,
    i believe i may know you. can you give me a hint about what you do and where you live? are you one of us? do you like bicycles?
    911doc

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  6. georgeh,

    i must disagree with you re the evolution thing. as you know, evolution states that the 'fittest' are those that succeed in passing on their genetic material to the next generations. most of the folks you speak of have had thirty children by the time they are twenty so they win. doesn't matter how many of their kids are offed, there's twenty or so more to carry on.

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  7. I could not agree with you more. Unfortunately, my kids think I am a "mean mom" for not letting them participate in these dangerous things. The part that makes me a good parent is that I do not care what they think of me (well, maybe I care a little but it doesn't change my decisions) as long as they are safe and well taken care of.

    Luckily most of the time they think the world of me...just when I tell them no to the trampolines and no to riding on the motorbike thing the neighbors have is when I am the "meanest mom ever". I think you read my post about my daughter and what happened when I let her jump on the stupid trampoline even when I wasn't feeling ok with that decsion. Never again will I doubt myself like that.

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  8. again, radgirl,

    clone yourself multiple times immediately or get to work with your husband to imporve our gene pool. please tell your kids that it's not you that is so mean, it's that mean doctor on the web, then you are off the hook.

    cheers

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  9. It's better to burn out than to fade away... wasn't that in 'Highlander'?

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  10. Don't forget the lovely snowmobiles racing across the frozen tundra... right into that ditch or sprinkler line.

    Permanent injuries should not start before someone is old enough to know better.

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  11. The timing on this post is either very bad - or very good. I went to a funeral today of a 17yo who blew his bike off a graveled turn at about 60 mph. no helmet - never wore one. His mom continually said how he never wore one, and was always safe. Yeah. just takes once. I kept having fantasies about standing up and yelling ' put on a f^&$ing helmet, you idiots!" to all his buddies sitting there. I didn't have the guts. I wish I'd have had the guts.

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  12. I have no data to back this up but:

    No helmet = death.
    Helmet = neck injury = quad paralysis.

    So why is a helmet so great?

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  13. not really. lots of folks mash their heads in and live for the rest of their lives drooling in a cup.

    also, the question then is if being alive and a para or quad with a functioning brain is better than being dead. i say it is.

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  14. I would disagree. Personally, I would rather be dead than a para or a quad and burden my family (and U folks out there)
    Also had a recent case like this with an interesting twist..10 yo on 4 wheeler, usual stuff, lucky kid not hurt bad..Boyfriend of Mom, U know the one who usually kills the kids, says he's selling the thing tomorrow and MOM says oh no your not!
    WTF!!

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