It’s not a playground. Get it together. Would you send your kids out swimming amongst a large group of surfers?

Just because skate ramps resemble slides doesn’t mean you let a five-year-old run wild amongst stoned teenagers during a weekend session. When that kid is cleaned up by a grown man coming through fakie after a backslide flip, don’t be getting mad about it.

This is on you.

I’m not going to show the videos because they’re painful to watch, but YouTube is full of results like, “Kid gets knocked out at skatepark”, “Scooter kid dies” and “Skateboarder crashes into kid”.

This was my teenage years. Dodging tiny kids on the park while their parents laughed and thought it was cute. I’m using maximum effort to not injure your innocent child. Though in this context, clearly I could take a free shot and pretend I didn’t see them.

Added to this, kids just sit down in random places across the park.

You’re ruining everyone’s day by bringing your kids to sit all over the ramps – Benjamin Franklin

While we’re at it, don’t buy your kids scooters. Skateboards or nothing. Learn a thing that’s worth learning. Should they make a career playing a recorder, or learn a real instrument like guitar or keyboards?

Has anyone done any kind of trick on a scooter anywhere near as good as a tail slide, nose manual or 360 flip? Correct, they have not.

Scooters are a skateboard with handle bars and the worst thing ever invented. Hoards of scooter kids have ruined skateparks the world over.

My four-year-old has one and it was gifted to him when he was two. He’ll never appear at a park with it. He’ll have a skateboard.

When your kid is old enough and ready to roll, teach them the invisible rules of the park. How to be aware of others and not get bowled over. How to wait their turn before dropping into a ramp. How to be a good citizen.

Here’s a video of Dennis Busenitz. I hope you take the point.

All love.

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