A 2-year-old was rushed to the hospital when the snowmobile she was riding crashed into a tree. You read that right: A 2-year-old was riding a snowmobile. And she crashed. She suffered a serious leg injury.
At least she wasn't riding it by herself. The tot was riding in front of her father with her 4-year-old brother in the back. Apparently they'd only gone about 10 yards before they crashed. But seriously? Who puts a 2-year-old on a snowmobile?!?
Oh there will be people who defend toddler snowmobiling, I'm sure. They'll swear up and down that it's perfectly safe, that they've done it before, and you just have to be careful, duh. But it still sounds risky to me. Unless you really have to get somewhere and you have no other options, snowmobiling with your toddler just sounds like a bad idea.
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Pediatrics and Child Health says, "Children younger than six years of age do not have the strength or stamina to be transported safely as passengers on snowmobiles." So even the 4-year-old shouldn't have been riding.
And riding in the front? Yikes! I've seen bicycle child seats that sit in front of the parents instead of behind, and I can see how it's nice to keep your child in sight. But pediatricians generally frown on them because your kid is going to get it first if you crash. I just think, if snowmobiling with a toddler were really such a great idea, they'd make child seats with belts that fit behind the parent.
At least there were no head injuries! Maybe the family at least had the good sense to wear helmets. But who wants to bet that dad caught hell from his wife when she heard what happened?
Do you think it's possible for a toddler to be safe riding a snowmobile?
Image via |Chris|/Flickr
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Comments 24
It makes me feel better about my sub-par parenting, I'll tell you that! Putting little ones on a snowmobile or Sea Doo is just stupid. I get nervous with my 2-year-old in my husband's arms, buckled into the golf cart!
I would let my 2 year old son go on a snowmobile with his dad....if it was in our yard and obviously if he was going slow. He goes on the wheeler with us and the lawnmower and on tractors. He loves it. We use helmets and when on the lawnmower he has his ear protection on. I will probably get bashed for thinking it is ok, but that is my feeling.
World's Stupidest Dad? I think not.
There are men that have done worse things. He didn't kill her, it's just a leg injury. Was it a bad idea? Absoutely. But he's not the the world's stupidest dad...
I was just thinking the same thing that Reepicheep said... we've got kids out here as young as 5 with their own "kittycats" - small, child-sized versions of Arctic Cat snowmobiles.
We see kids riding on four-wheelers with their parents ALL the time - they're going from farm to farm to take care of chores, and the kids, as young as 2, are going right along. And doing the chores, too! Out here, the kids are even on horseback that young. It's no big deal.
Do kids get hurt? Yep. Life's a risk. The same kid who did just fine on the snowmobile all day long could end up breaking a leg by falling off his chair at lunch. Crap happens. I wouldn't call this dad stupid, much less the "world's stupidest dad". I save that for TRUE stupidity - like drinking and driving with the kids in the car.
My kids haven't been on snowmobiles yet, but they have both been on quads, starting at about age 1-with helmets, going slow. As long as the adult driving them doesnt drive like an idiot, its perfectly safe.
I have never been on a snowmobile, but I feel like its probably no different then a 4 wheeler, or a riding lawn mower (obviously speed wise it can go way faster, but still). If you are going slow and just going in like circles or something. People need to stop living in a damn bubble and being so damn afraid of "what could happen".