Patricia exclaims, “Shall we unite and let our children wear helmets?”
Patricia van Liemt is a radio presenter, writer and mother of Maria (12) and Phaedra (9). Every Friday she writes striking, honest, funny and above all recognizable columns about her life and motherhood.
I’m not sure if this is going to be a very pleasant column. If you are sitting on a pink, blue or gender neutral cloud and you are very comfortable there, I advise you to perhaps stop reading. Then you better start smelling the head of your fresh baby (OMG that smell! Compared to that, Zwitsal looks like a cheap perfume from a retired artist). Okay, but don’t read any further, because, as you may be used to from me, I’m going to give my unsalted opinion and throw some statistics at you. Well, and you just have to feel like it while your baby smells so good.
Contents
Mother’s heart
Here we go. Nowadays I drive a short distance through our capital with my car every day. And what I find there is just not good for my mother heart. On the one hand, it is made of reinforced concrete, a don’t-touch-my-child-and-I-can-lift-a-car heart. On the other hand, my maternal heart is also very fragile; if someone says “boo”, it already breaks. That work.
“On the other hand, my maternal heart is also very fragile; if someone says ‘boo’, it already breaks”
Well, my mother heart doesn’t know what to do when I drive through the city. That’s because I see parents with their teenie babies on the front racing their bikes through the city. And I do get it. I remember well when my eldest daughter was eight months old and I took her on a bike ride. That was really another milestone. The freedom it gave me, but also the pleasure my daughter experienced was priceless.
One condition: helmet on!
There was one condition: helmet on. Oh, I’ve battled with her, believe me. Those little hands that were constantly trying to pull that thing off her head. Amazing how strong an eight month old baby can be. But my don’t-touch-my-child-and-I-can-lift-car-heart won, so she had to wear a helmet.
When my eldest was 3.5 years old and my youngest was six months old, we moved to Switzerland. Thank God it was mandatory there to wear a helmet on your bike until you were 12. No nagging from peers who didn’t wear a helmet. Everyone just had a helmet on.
Finally succumbed
Once back in the Netherlands, I lost the battle against my 8.5-year-old daughter. My fragile heart couldn’t manage to let my child cycle to school as the only one (!) with a helmet. I just couldn’t do that to her. I have had a lot of trouble having to put my principles aside for the social pressure of other children. But I eventually succumbed. There she went… without a helmet.
Before I start raving, I also did some scientific research, with results that I was already afraid of. ‘There is generally little support for a helmet obligation in the Netherlands. The main reason is that the popularity of bicycles would (significantly) decrease with a duty, but this has not been proven. Of the more than seven hundred Dutch respondents, 34% say they have a helmet. However, only a small group (2%) always wears the helmet; the majority (70%) never’. Yoohoo!
Dear parents, shall we unite and let our children wear helmets?
Source: https://swov.nl/nl/factsheet/fietshelmen
Post Views: 0
