Joe Jonas gets a new ride
Categories: Teens & tweens, Health & safety, Life & style, Birthdays
My thirteen-year-old niece won't admit to liking their music, but she will say she's going to marry a Jonas brother. Or maybe all of them. I'm not really sure because she was gushing so much when she spoke of them that it was hard to understand her. In any case, I gather they are something teenage girls fawn over. The only problem is, if it's Joe Jonas she's after, she'd better get a move on -- there's no telling how long he's going to be around now.You see, he just turned nineteen and one of his presents was a motorcycle. Sure, a helmet was included, but that doesn't change the fact that the term for someone who rides a motorcycle amongst nurses like my sister-in-law is "organ donor." At least, that's what she told me when I was thinking of getting a bike for commuting to work.
Of course, what goes around comes around, as they say -- my son Jared has been eyeing the neighbor kid's motorbike and asking if he can get one. Given that he's only six, the answer is pretty easy, but what about when he gets older? Would I be willing to let him commute to high school and college on a motorcycle or scooter? That's a much tougher question and I'm not sure what the answer is except that I'm pretty sure it will be either "No!" or "Hell No!".
Would you let your kid get a motorcycle? Helmet or not, they can be deadly. Of course, so can just about anything else. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
pia 8-19-2008 @ 2:40PM
I grew up around motorcycles, my dad still rides, husband rides and we are teaching our children how to ride-safely and lawfully. There will always be risk takers who ride (or drive cars) like jerks. My 9 year old has a mini (MINI) bike. It was from before those electric/battery fisher price toys were invented. He has clear rules on what to wear (protect your skin and your head), where to go (right now, its on the grass and never near a driveway where someone can back out and miss seeing him) and finally he has to pray before he starts the bike. Just like anything else, he has to be taught. The kids I worry about are the ones who take a friends bike out and have no idea what they are doing, the ones who drink/drug (same risk as a car) or have a lack of respect for themselves, others and rules.
So, yes, I would let my son ride once he is old enough to have a license. But before my daughter could get on one, I need to know that driver also meets these standards of safety and respect. She wont drive one herself-its not her style.
Good luck on finding opinions, I am sure they will be many to read!
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Joy 8-19-2008 @ 3:12PM
No, no and no. My boys both wanted motorcycles and my rule was “not in my house.” I don’t care about all the "they’re as dangerous as a car" or any of the other analogy’s. This is my house, my rules you can do what you want when you have your own home too. I hate them. For playing, we have four wheelers and dirt bikes but they are for here on our land and not out on the highway. I worry more about other people and not so much my own kids. Learning to drive them and play with them, yes we did that but not on highways.
I had enough to worry about without deciding what “organs to donate.” One grown boy has one now, the other not. But I don’t know when he’s gone or on it and therefore, don’t worry like I would have if he’d been living in MY house.
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Jenn 8-19-2008 @ 4:56PM
My father is a neuroradiologist, and he has the same stories (and nickname) for motorcyclists as your SIL the nurse.
The thing with motorcycles is that even if you are a good and careful rider, if another driver in a car makes a mistake, the motorcyclist is the one who pays. And an accident on a motorcycle is much more likely to be catastrophic (to the rider) than the same accident in a car.
So. I won't be able to do anything about it once she's out of the house, but there will be no motorcycles while my daughter is still living under my roof.
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Karen 8-19-2008 @ 5:12PM
I have no problems with motorcycles.
That said, my minor child wouldn't have one, but Joe Jonas is 19. He can do what he wants.
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candace 8-19-2008 @ 6:14PM
My brother was riding his motorcycle one day and he was stopped at a red light. Everything was fine until a car had hit him from behind. Then, he was thrown in the air as well as the motorcycle which unfortuntally landed on his ankle. The doctors almost had to remove his foot because of poor circulation. The people in the car drove away never to be found.
Anyway, my point was that people are not hurt nearly as much if they were in a car.rather than a motorcycle. Agreeing with Jenn on this, you can be the best driver in the world and still get injured from the irresponsible people around you.
What people do is up to them and their own personal preferences. I wouldn't ride a motorcycle because of safety and it's just not me.
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isisaquaria 8-20-2008 @ 12:52AM
Love motorcycles-my 13yo has two, she is watched and well taught on how to handle them. I rode my own for yrs until second was born-health problems----still ride on the back on my husbands--my 6yo has a mini which she is learning with.
Motorcycle safety courses every yr for all of us, new helmets as they grow, and unsafe actions occur, the bike is taken away until motorcycle course is retaken. And the twins will have the same chances and rules as they become of age and size to do so-if they wish.
As for accidents, yeah they happen, but I can cut my finger off by not paying attention in the kitchen,
I can fall and injure my back or neck---
If you teach them and keep them up to date-the risk is there always, but why teach kids to live in fear?
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kelsey 8-23-2008 @ 11:39AM
people may say that motercycles are dangerous but so is anything else. You could get in an accident know matter what, being in a car isnt going to change that. I have been riding on the back of a motercycle since i was 6. as long as u know what your doing and arnt trying to imitate some crazy stunt then ur fine. so what if joe has a motercycle, thats cool. he is a good role modle and can show kids and teens that riding a moter bike can be fun when when you get old enough and are wearing the prober saftey equitment.
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