Helmets and class

Last weekend, we bought D a bicycle with training wheels and a bell and a fierce looking bee painted on it.  He couldn’t be more pleased with it.  Of course, we have him wearing a helmet — we even made him wear one with his tricycle.

Hugo Schwyzer wrote last month about adults riding bikes on the sidewalk in his neighborhood:

"I’ve never seen any of these young men wearing helmets.  I have no doubt that they can’t afford them."

D doesn’t seem to have noticed yet that almost none of the big kids in the neighborhood wear helmets when they ride bikes.  I’m not looking forward to the arguments we’re likely to have when he does.

The kids I see riding their bikes are mostly African-American; many of them live in a nearby subsidized housing project. I’m not sure how much the issue is that their parents can’t afford helmets, how much it’s that they’re less inclined to believe they can protect their children from all of the world’s ills.  I don’t want to make D think that his friends’ parents love their children less than we love him — but I also don’t want him to think that wearing a helmet is negotiable. 

8 Responses to “Helmets and class”

  1. chip Says:

    You’ve raised a really interesting point. On the one hand, I’d also never let my kids bike without a helmet. But on the other hand, when I was a kid no one ever wore helmets and I don’t know anyone who was ever injured.
    I think the whole helmets thing, and the class element of it, has to do with a kind of obsession with control among middle and upper-middle class white folks. Maybe we feel like we should be able to have control, but in reality realize so much is out of our hands, so we obsess on control in areas where we perceive we have control. Like health, kids’ safety, etc.
    I’ve found around here the poor or working class white kids are also much less likely to wear helmets. Different perceptions of entitlement and of control maybe.

  2. amy Says:

    Or different perceptions of risk and actual ability to reduce it. Few of us have much control over matters of war, taxes, or water supply, but helmet-wearing is pretty good cheap insurance against brain injury. Perfect? No. Useful? Yes. Ask my husband, who landed on his head a decade ago after going about 30 downhill on rollerblades. Helmet totalled, head OK. Of course, if you’re thinking poor, where your goal is just to get safely through without looking for trouble, the answer to my husband’s story would be “Don’t go downhill on rollerblades in the first place.” But if you’re thinking middle-class ambitious, where you want to do more and think you’re entitled to try, you look for ways to do what you want to do while minimizing the risks. Hence helmets, technical mountain-climbing gear, umbrella coverage.
    There are some differences, too, between when we were kids and now. When I was a kid, I didn’t wear a helmet, but I also wasn’t allowed to ride anyplace “dangerous”. Back then, though, there were always kids on bikes riding around after school, and grownups knew to look out for us. That’s no longer the case, and I find that few drivers think to look for bicyclists. Defensive skills and helmets are more important than they were. In all honesty, helmets probably protect more adults than they do small children — older bicyclists tend to go faster, ride in heavier traffic, have poorer reflexes, and ride in areas with more pedestrians (who tend to be a bigger hazard than cars are — they’re why I wear a helmet on no-motor-traffic bike paths). But since it’s harder to break a safety habit than it is to pick one up, the kids may as well start young.

  3. amy Says:

    egh. Last sentence made no sense. Start good habits early. Easier than picking them up later. Uh. Maybe helmet didn’t help so much after all.

  4. Doug Says:

    I see the big gap between very young children with helmets and adults with helmets. I just don’t see any kids from about 10-16 years old wearing helmets. Rebellion, invincibility complex, etc.
    I think the only chance to have a kid at that age actually wear a helmet involves a) modeling the behavior yourself (which, of course, means you have to actually be a cyclist), and b) letting the kid choose the helmet. Kids won’t wear a helmet they consider dorky. Period. …at least not out of the parents’ sight.
    Better to spend whatever it takes to make the helmet desirable to the kid.
    Favorite helmet quip: If you have a $20 head, buy a $20 helmet.
    Expensive helmets are worth it if that means they become something that will actually be worn by CHOICE instead of by coercion.

  5. amy Says:

    Coercion’s fine by me. This is one of the advantages of living in a small city, btw — you know people everywhere you go. If my daughter’s 12 and decides a helmet does horrible, horrible things to her hair, and rides around helmetless, Someone Else’s Parents will see her and tell me. No more bike after that for a while, and then we’ll try again. Since I’m really not into chauffering, and the bike will be an actual form of transportation for her, I suspect she’ll decide helmethead is preferable to 6-mile walks, getting up earlier for school, waiting for buses, etc.
    Of course, if she really wants an $80 helmet, I’ll certainly let her buy one herself with saved birthday/babysitting/etc. money. Until she can afford one, though…those cheaper helmets can be pretty good at what they do.

  6. V.H. Says:

    I have a feeling we won’t have a helmet fight with our daughter. My husband is an amateur bike racer and helmets are required in racing at all levels. An Australian rider was recently kicked out of a pro race for taking his helmet off during a race. Locally, the Clarendon Cup is held every year. It’s an all day racing event in Arlingon, VA that includes kiddie races (as in tricycles welcome), amateur, and pro racing. Lots of examples of very cool, very fast people on bikes, all wearing helmets. In the past, promoters have had extra kid’s helmets on hand for children that show up without them.

  7. Genevieve Says:

    Excellent point, V.H. — I’ve taken my son to the Clarendon Cup once, and I should make sure to do it again! Sets a great example. (I didn’t realize the kids could race on trikes.)

  8. mrscrumley Says:

    When I was 11 (I think) my dad used to ride his bike for exercise everyday. One morning he returned from his morning ride bloodied and badly scraped. He was crossing a very busy street and his bike just “tripped,” flipping him face first into the street. No, he wasn’t wearing a helmet (this was before helmets were popular for even children). He always wore one from that day on.
    On Saturday my husband purchased a bike he wants to ride to work. His second purchase? A helmet.

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