Wearing a helmet won't reduce the amount of fun kids have tobogganing and in the event of a crash, may save a life.  Why not wear one?

So Mists - does your daughter wear one when she goes sliding?  What percentage of kids do?   Just curious, since my kids are grown up now & I'm not frequenting the tobogganing hills.

There aren't really any good hills here so she hasn't gone yet.  I'll make sure she wears one when/if we find a good place to go.  I have no idea how many people wear them; other than very tiny children, no one did when I was a kid.

My kids grew up wearing them on BIG hills. They just wore their bike helmets.No big deal. I just checked with my youngest.

When we went out with cubs/scouts most wore helmets.

I remeber just flying down Emily Murphy Hill one day-it must have rained and frozen. It was AWESOME and a row of dads at the bottom stopped every sled, every time so no one hit the bales of straw.

My kids also downhill ski snowboard in helmets. I just bought my 21 year old a new one, as his old one no longer coveredenough at the back.

I'm not an overprotective parent-I'm sure I let my kids take more risks than most.Wilderness camping, white water canoeing (with helmets if it warranted it) backcountry skiing, avalanche training, sleeping in snow shelters.

If a helmet can prevent a head injury I'm all for them!

When my husband was VERY young (around 2) he and his sister were on a taboggan that was momentarily left unattended. It slid down a steep hill or bank and hit a tree. My husband was in a coma for a long time. When he awoke he didn't know his parents or how to walk or talk and had to learn again. This later manifested itself into (we think) teen epilepsy and then mental illness. Even now, you can tell it affected his left brain function from  being hit on that side of the head. He is one of the bravest souls I have ever met.

I always get a twinge of nervousness now when my kids go sliding.

But yes, for Heaven's sake, helmet your kids!

Had a 30 minute car ride with my 16 and 19 year old. Both said helmets for BIG hills or when being towed behind Suburban on the ice on toboggan made of plywood and 2x4.s. It was wold and awesome and cub/scouts.

That said I have lately taken 1 GT racer to the school I do morning supervision at. (During teacher's job action).

The hill is about equivalent to 5 stairs.. No trees, well away from soccer goal posts.One sled-one adult supervisor-no helmets and no injuries.

I know I grew up without ski helmets, bike helmets, seat belts, riding in back of pick ups, canoeing and sailing while sitting on lifejackets-but we know better now. My kids (well adults and semi-adults) do these activities with safety gear.

Wow Trish-head injury leading to lifelong concerns.

Me too Tabitha ... and my kids did, and do, wear safety gear on the snowboarding slopes, including helmets.    Never tobogganing tho - but that was mostly in the 'pre helmet' era & we were not a hockey family so didn't have helmets except when they were little & just learning to skate.  Always insisted on bike helmets for the whole family.

Must say, I do remember the thrill of tobogganing as a kid, and with my own kids - the rush of cold air, and sprays of snow in face, bailing out into the snow to avoid collisions with the occasional unexpected obstacle!   Mostly laughing, laughing, laughing, brushing ourselves off and then huffing & puffing our way back up the hills to do it all over again.

So many injuries are a possibility - helmets can help in some cases, but definitely not all.  Sometimes I wonder if helmets might give a false sense of security about the possibility of being injured.

Yeah nobody goes out LOOKING for a brain injury. I guess that's why they're called ACCIDENTS.

  Ahhh the days of thinking we were immortal....sigh

I think a lot depends upon the age of the kids and the hill chosen for the activity.  When my granddaughter was a toddler, she would slide  (plastic toboggan) on the slope of the front yard.    Elevation of about four feet, gradual slope then flat, total distance about 10 to 12 feet.   Yes, there was a quiet street out front, but at 30 pounds she didn't have the momentum to travel that far.   She was bundled like a teddybear in a snowsuit with a hood.  No, she didn't wear a helmet.

Back sixty years to when I was a young child.  My friends and I slid on a hill near the house - probably two or three times as long as the mound in my front yard.   We didn't wear helmets.  The only ones I ever heard of were those the soldiers brought back with them from the war.   

A little older, pre-teen, early teen.  We ventured further.  A long hill, a logging road going up, up away from the village into the woods.   We would trudge up, a long, long walk and then, when the logging trucks were all deep in the woods, an older boy would shout 'all clear' and we would slide down, down, down - a long thrilling ride.  We would look at the sun, or at the light fading in the west, and estimate the time and take another walk up the long hill for another slide down.  Sometimes we would get a third run in.    Then we'd hear the shout  "the trucks are coming"   we'd pass it on down the hill.  "Watch out.  The trucks are coming."  and everybody would grab their sleds and scatter.   I don't remember any child in the community being injured beyond an occasional scrape or bruise - and we didn't wear helmets or any protective gear.

But when I see some of the hills especially prepared and groomed for tobogganing in parks - how steep, how icy, they are made.  How congested they are - yes, kids and adults probably do need protective helmets.   They also are probably driven to the hills by their parents who can help them with their toboggans, their helmets, their gear.    Pity.

We used to tobaggan on a really big hill.  At the time it was York Downs Golf Club but it has since become Earl Bales Park in Toronto.  It has a hill that goes down to the Don River and the valey is particularly steep and deep there.  I was over there a lot sledding, tobagganing and skiing.  You could slid a quarter mile right down to the river and that was if you started on the small hill.  The big one was called (of course!)  "The Killer" and lots of people hurt themselves there but I never saw anybody hurt their head.  It was always arms legs and backs (tail bone because you spent a lot of time airborne).  If I had had a helmet, though, I could have pretended I was a kamikaze and been even more reckless.  

Kids go out and slide on the snow with whatever they have cardboard, plastic, garbage can lids ... shoes without boots are particularly good ... maybe if you give them helmets they would probably find a way of taking them off and using them for sliding on.  

The folly of this idea is that it assumes that children's play is organized and supervised when in fact to even qualify as real play in the minds of most kids it has to be impromptu and unsupervised.  Regulate away I say! Children are natural born rebels and scofflaws. Your rules won't matter a bit.  

Oh to be a kid again!

We never did when I was a kid, and it was only the youngest ones on the hill (who would start 1/2 way up the hill) who did.  It's not a bad idea though.

The last time I went I was an older teen or young adult and I just found it painful!  I think you're more likely to get a minor concussion from whiplash or falling onto your butt too hard to be honest, but it's a major head injury that's more of a concern.

Now on a more serious note ... the media is not scare mongering so much as "changing the subject" or directing our attention away from the really important issues.   They are doing "don't worry, be happy".  They are doing the bidding of their corporate masters.  They are acting as the purveyors of the "fluff" which seems to have become our staple diet these days.

I'm going to put down a number of issues here and  then you can rate them in order of importance (most important first).

child abuse

child hunger

housing and shelter of children

education for children

safe tobagganing conditions for children

child labour

sexual exploitation of children

child neglect

hey, if geddy lee recommends a helmet, then really, who are we to suggest otherwise?!?!

Ha! that's cute!

LOL - Geddy Lee!  Thanks sighsnootles.

Not laughing qwerty - good list & point well taken.  

In high school a friend of mine broke his leg tobogganing - at night - on an off limits golf course.  An ill-considered and totally adolescently 'normal' outing ...

Some years later, our babysitter's brother broke his back tubing down a hill - at night - similarly ill-considered & out of control when he hit a tree - rendered him a high level paraplegic. 

Indeed Trishcuit - a big sigh for the fearless days of youth.

Yes carolla its the hurt backs that always scared me ... and there were a lot of hurt backs out on "The Killer".  I saw enough kids hurt their backs that I decided to take up skiing through the trees on my mothers 6 foot hickory skis with non-release "beartrap" bindings  because it was far safer ... My mom was great about it.  She'd say, "Be careful now.  Have a good time" as I set out to walk and ski over into the back of the golf course where I would spend 5 or 6 hours before coming home.  She never sent out a search party and if she was worried she never let on.  

My friend;s husband was driven to hospital on his stomach with a long splinter deep in his buttock. No helmet for this part of the anatomy.

ooohhh now THAT will leave a mark!!

Growing up, I had the best toboggan run in the neighbourhood in my own front yard. I had a split level front yard which sloped down towards the house. You'd get a good run going on the top level before flying over a wall that was about 2 feet high, before landing on the bottom level. It was fast and fun. That said, it never occured to any of us that we should be wearing a helmet - in fact, I don't think I've ever seen a kid wearing a helmet while tobogganing.

I am reminded, however, of something that happened here last week while we still had snow on the ground. Two young boys were tobogganing down a steep driveway, not realizing that a bus was approaching. The bus was moving slowly, but the driver was unable to stop in time and hit both children. One boy flew out from beneath the bus, but the other was pinned beneath the axle. Both children were taken to hospital, but luckily neither were seriously injured - and both were discharged within hours. Apparently the children knew that they weren't supposed to go down the driveway, but they did it anyways.

My Uncle, where I spent a good part of my childhood, had a rocking driveway for tubing on. Trouble is, it turned it into a sheet of ice.  Barbed wire on both sides (lucky enough snow piled up to act as 'bumpers') and a stallion whose  pasture ran down the length of the driveway on the left side. Sometimes he'd chase us on his own side of the fence because he wanted a peice of us so bad.  Good times.

lol trish - those ARE great memories, aren't they?  So exhilarating.

One March break at the cottage - it was an Olympic year, the kids were about 4 & 7 yrs old  - we staged the Henny Lake Olympics.  Of course tobogganing was a major event!  We video'd it all, with sports commentary, athlete interviews, and even commercials!  We dreamed up new events all week & naturally had closing ceremonies, medal presentations & singing of the national anthem.  So sweet to recall this - haven't thought of it in a while.   Sigh.  Smile.  

Hi carolla,

My kids never wore helmets while sledding.  In St. Anthony we were more concerned about the odd Polar Bear.  Helmets are no help against those.

I never wore a helmet.

Our favourite hill was not very high.  It was incredibly steep and would ice up quickly.  Making it very fast.  The hill ended right in the parking lot of the Chamber of Commerce which was great after they plowed it out.  We got the best ramps for jumping.  We were landing in the lot which meant all of the landings were hard.

I don't remember any blood, concussions or missing teeth.

I can't remember the kid's name.  I can recall him rocketting down the hill, flying off the ramp and plowing into the side of a parked cube van.  I think some of his friends walked him home.  He was back the next day looking none the worse for wear.

I think we have become more risk averse.  Extreme sports are probably a rebellion against smothering protection.

I don't know how kids today feel about helmets.

I can well imagine that me and my contemporaries would have figured the helmets made us more invincible and the stupidity would have abounded.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Ah yes RevJohn - I forgot about the RAMPS!!  Careful construction ... hours of gleefully landing on our tailbones, or worse ...   I do certainly agree with your comment about us becoming more risk averse. 

Hi carolla,

Oddly this became something of dinner table conversation last night.

Our foster child was lauding the benefits of snow sleds that can now be steered more easily.  He likes them because now you don't have to crash into trees.

I remember when they first came out with sleds that boasted new and improved steering.  Seems to me we used that ability to hit things not miss them.  In fact, in honour of our absolute conviction that we were immortal we deliberately targetted things like trees because they were unyielding and there was no better way to prove our toughness than by taking on a tree at the bottom of the hill.

I'm amazed we lived to talk about it.  None of us appear to have been all that bright.

Grace and peace to you.

John

ps. It may explain why I'm in ministry.  Sometimes it feels like sledding down a long hill and plowing into a tree.

lol, revjohn.

Great stories here.

No helmets toboganning.

We also didn't go to busy hills, and we didn't toboggan where there were trees.

(Well, other than a wee hill at a retreat centre, where the parents would stand at the bottom with tubes around the few spots.... we were more at risk of a parent jumping in front of a sled, than anything else

i grew up beside a hillwe would use anything, plastic sheeting, cardboard, toboggans (waxed wooden and aluminum) , flying saucers 

Used to judget how well you did by if you could get to the road  (if anyone made it it was a huge surprise...and you were inching your toboggan along to do it....but heh, goals were important)

Yes I rememer going hell bent for leather on a GT snow racer.  Brakes? I forgot. I was too busy hanging on. Besides if I stuck on in the ground it would have sent me into fantastic sumersaults.  It was a spectacular wipeout when I did come off but no airtime thank goodness.

Has anyone tried ice sliding? It's basically a summer version of tobogganing that we did with the kids at work last summer. We got large containers, filled them with water and stuck them in the freezer. When they were frozen solid, we took them to a park with a giant hill. We popped the giant ice cubes out, covered the top with someone's coat and let the kids slide down the hill on them. They had a blast!

Now THAT"S an intersting cooling idea. I'll have to remember that. 

agreed trish

LOL RevJohn!

Somegal - you must have one heck of a big freezer!! 

And the sliding vehicle of choice during university years ... cafeteria trays!   Those babies could fly!!

Our freezer at work is actually bigger than our fridge is - it's about 6 feet tall. It looks like a fridge - you use a door instead of a lid to open it.

well then ... diverting a bit somegal ... have you ever made ice candles in your freezer?  We used to just make them outdoors in winter at the cottage, but a freezer would work too.  Fill up some buckets with water, put them in (or out!) to freeze - overnight usually is long enough, but may vary depending on size of bucket you use.    When a good cylinder of solid ice has formed, use a hammer to whack a hole in the top centre of the ice & dump out the remaining water.  Slide the cylinder out of the bucket.  Then put a candle in the cylinder & put it outside to stay cold (hopefully!) or put it in a tray to catch any melting water if you use it inside.  It twinkles & glows beautifully - fire & ice!  

Now back to tobogganing - let's make lots of ice candles & put them out to guide us down the hills for night-time tobogganing! 

We actually have done that Carolla, but 2L pop bottles (with the tops cut off) instead of buckets. In addition to putting water in them, we had the kids collect greenery and put that in too. Instead of putting full length candles in, we used tea lights. They looked amazing when they were finished!

lol!!  i forgot all about that!!

yep, those suckers could cause some serious damage on big hills.... i went to the university of saskatchewan, so hills around us were pretty lame. 

but man, i bet you could create a sonic boom if you took one of those down the hill at greens creek in ottawa!!!

I understand that cafeteria trays have been used on the hills at UNB.   The entire campus is on the side of a hill.

wow, i had forgotten about trays.