Lesson learned

[AppleTree]

Limewave, I know what you are feeling. My first son (now 32 and doing just great!) fell off his babyseat, in which he was sitting on the table...unstrapped. He decided to learn how to roll out at the exact moment I stepped away to get something. He was about 4 months old I think. I will never forget the sound his head made as it hit the terraza floor... By the time we got him to the emergency room (the doctor said "just as a precaution") he was just FINE, but I was an absolute wreck.

Life has so many lessons for us, and luckily we manage to survive most of them!

[marni]

thank goodness your son in ok and congratulations on his new helmet. Just make sure he always always wears it. As for your other making fun of your worries, calling you over protective, try a dramatic presentation. Take an egg, hold it in the air, and say this is your brain in your head without a helmet. Drop the egg and as you clean up the mess say "and this is your brain in and out of your head, on the ground without a helmet.

Best example I have is the cracked and shattered helmet from a fall (broken ribs, collapsed lung, road rash but no concussion) which I keep around to show people why they need a helmet.

marni

[Pedal Wench]

...try a dramatic presentation. ...

I do that too. I work at a large NBS (national bike shop - you know, the one with the green vests!) and whenever someone says that they don't need a helmet because they're just riding in a park, or on a bike path - I tell them that concrete is concrete. Then standing next to them, I say, "Imagine if I had a cantaloupe, right up here next to your head. What happens when I drop it on this nice concrete floor." I let go of our imaginary melon, and 9 times out of 10, they'll step back to avoid the mess of the imaginary melon smashing onto the floor. Then we go pick out a nice new helmet.