What would you do?

"Andy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

If it was my son doing that, I'd want someone to stop him getting killed.

I don't know about yours, but my sons both know better than to ride on the wrong side of the road.
This child was probably a victim of American-style "bicyclist as wheeled pedestrian" thinking;
having been told to walk facing oncoming traffic, nobody had told them that cycling is any
different.

Guy Chapman said:

"Andy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

If it was my son doing that, I'd want someone to stop him getting killed.

I don't know about yours, but my sons both know better than to ride on the wrong side of the road.
This child was probably a victim of American-style "bicyclist as wheeled pedestrian" thinking;
having been told to walk facing oncoming traffic, nobody had told them that cycling is any
different.

My take on it was somewhat different.

Having been warned by mum and dad not to venture out of The Close onto the main road, he did,
cycling, perhaps, half a mile up the country lane. There he pulled into an opening in the hedge,
where there was a gate into a field. In this opening he turned his bike around.

Having been told never to cross the main road without holding an adult's hand, and not wanting to
break another of his parent's Golden Rules he rode back to the relative safety of The Close, on the
wrong side of the road.

Now, I don't know your sons, but I do know that at the age of seven I knew better than to
investigate how an electric wall socket works by taking it apart with a metal screwdriver, but
knowing better than to do it didn't stop me from doing it. And having dismantled said electric wall
socket with a metal screwdriver, and hiving been thrown halfway across the room by an electric
shock, I was more scared of the wrath of my mum than I was in reassembling the dismantled electric
wall socket.

In other words, knowing that your sons know better than to do idiotic things, won't stop them from
doing idiotic things. Fortunately, few of the idiotic things our children do end in tragedy.
--
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"Gonzalez" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Guy Chapman said:

"Andy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

If it was my son doing that, I'd want someone to stop him getting killed.

I don't know about yours, but my sons both know better than to ride on the wrong side of the
road. This child was probably a victim of American-style "bicyclist as wheeled pedestrian"
thinking; having been told to walk facing oncoming traffic, nobody had told them that cycling is
any different.

My take on it was somewhat different.

Having been warned by mum and dad not to venture out of The Close onto the main road, he did,
cycling, perhaps, half a mile up the country lane. There he pulled into an opening in the hedge,
where there was a gate into a field. In this opening he turned his bike around.

Having been told never to cross the main road without holding an adult's hand, and not wanting to
break another of his parent's Golden Rules he rode back to the relative safety of The Close, on
the wrong side of the road.

Now, I don't know your sons, but I do know that at the age of seven I knew better than to
investigate how an electric wall socket works by taking it apart with a metal screwdriver, but
knowing better than to do it didn't stop me from doing it. And having dismantled said electric
wall socket with a metal screwdriver, and hiving been thrown halfway across the room by an
electric shock, I was more scared of the wrath of my mum than I was in reassembling the dismantled
electric wall socket.

In other words, knowing that your sons know better than to do idiotic things, won't stop them from
doing idiotic things. Fortunately, few of the idiotic things our children do end in tragedy.
--
remove remove to reply

Yup...it's all faultless kiddy logic. It's only as you become an adult and lose that clarity of
vision that kiddy logic appears to be illogical. That's what makes you smile when you encounter
it....it's actually embarrasment, you know they're right ;-) Dave.

Gonzalez said:

knowing that your sons know better than to do idiotic things, won't stop them from doing
idiotic things.

You missed the point, I think. Rather than forbid them to ride on the road, I have taught them why
the road is dangerous, and how to negotiate it safely. That means riding on the correct side, and
knowing how to cross in safety.

My kids aren't perfect, and neither am I (why do you think I have three separate residual current
devices in my consumer unit?) but the current tendency to post "unexplored, here be dragons" signs
on anything even remotely dangerous is not a great way to build responsibility, road sense, or any
other kind of sense I reckon.

Guy
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