Reply to Child broke leg on sidewalk—should I talk to the neighbor or teach my 12-year-old to pay more attention?

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "Child broke leg on sidewalk—should I talk to the neighbor or teach my 12-year-old to pay more attention?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here—I’m not suing anyone. It’s not worth it over a few small copays. What I really wanted was input on two teaching moments:

Riding safely on the sidewalk. How do you teach your child to scan ahead, slow down around obstacles, and respect raised curb edges when biking?

Keeping the sidewalk clear. What’s the best way to reinforce that once they’re done riding (or when it’s trash day), they need to move their bike—and any trash cans—fully off the walk?

Also, I’d love everyone’s thoughts on approaching our neighbor. Should I send a friendly note explaining that their trash can blocked the path, caused my son to swerve and break his leg, and remind them it’s legally required to pull the cart in by the end of pickup day? How have you handled similar conversations?[/quote]

OK, i'm going to actually tell you how I did this. And we live in DC and let our kids ride in the streets, so they need to learn to be EXTREMELY careful otherwise they will literally be run over by a red light runner or something.

I biked alongside them for like a year, telling them exactly what I'm thinking about while biking -- looking out for pedestrians, for cars opening doors, for cars pulling out of the lane for a stupid reason, etc. I have my inner monologue about what hazards to look out for, and I teach them how to think that way.

They are super safe bikers now.

This is the most helpful thing I learned about parenting, and I read it in a book so I will assume the best and share it.

Here is how you teach your kid a new skill.

Step 1: Show them how to do it 
Step 2: Do it with them
Step 3: Watch them while they do it
Step 4: They can do it on their own

Each step might take a while.

I count biking and bike safety in this category of skill teaching.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics