Quote:
Originally Posted by OldGuy
As for Kareem's well written input I'm sorry I just don't buy it. It is your opinion and I respect that. But from my perspective we have two problems with "youth" today. 1) Far too many had a friend growing up and not a parent. As a result they still haven't learned that there are consequences for their actions. 2) As for having to "learn the hard way" - as a parent you might be comfortable letting them do that if we're talking about dating, school, money decision, etc BUT NOT THEIR LIFE.
The hardest part about being a parent is having to say no and enforcing the rules you've laid down. It's called being an adult.
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Don I can't agree with you more, but I'll throw another wrench into the situation. There are those parent's who themselves have either a.) never ridden a motorcycle before and don't know the first thing about ATGATT, or b.) might be the traditional "Harley" type of people who don't wear gear because they feel it takes away from the purity of enjoying motorcycling.
For example: When I first bought my bike and gear I took a fishing trip with a friend of mine to Wisconsin, the mecca of Harley riders. Within the two day trip I saw at least 90/100 Harley riders riding with only jeans and a t-shirt (men and women included). Compared to that I have to say on a positive note out of the 20 sport bikes I saw at least 10 of those people had gear on. I know it isn't much butter but there seems to be at least a better trend for those on sport bikes to wear gear compared to the cruiser scene.
My point is parents definitely do make an impact on the decision process, but like you said only if the parent acts like a parent and not a friend. If the parent gives in to the desire of their child who wants to buy a sport bike and not wear gear when they fully well know that their kid doesn't fully understand the consequences of getting into an accident, then they themselves should prevent them from buying the bike in the first place and having such a scenario come about. But then again not everyone is that smart.
Another problem is those kids who go out and end up buying stuff behind their parents back. Same lack of parental connection & supervision can be applied. In my case, when I was 21 I bought my trans am on my own without my dad knowing about it. I bought it through the result of influence from my stupid testosterone driven 21 year old friends who encouraged me to get such a car. When I brought it home, yea I got yelled at by my dad but in the end there was not much repercussion. I didn't realize what I had on my hands until I almost killed myself street racing.
That sense of logic was never instilled into my brain by my parents nor by my surroundings. Luckily though I was smart enough not to buy a bike until I knew that my maturity level could handle such a dangerous machine. Considering that most people are the product of their environment this is another factor to consider as well.