Unpopular Opinion: Kids REALLY Don't Need Electric Scooters or Skateboards

I mean, if I can skate to a party in a dress and heels at an age I'm not willing to admit, can't your kids propel their own skateboards? 

Every time I see a child -- or even a young adult -- on an electric scooter or skateboard, I have to ask myself...

Is there something wrong with his/her legs?

I don't mean to sound judge-y. It's a serious question. What is the incentive to buy your kid a transportation device that propels itself, when your child is perfectly capable of propulsion?

Have kids actually gotten so lazy that moving their bodies no longer feels good to them? I don't know if I can accept that. Moving my body feels AMAZING and it takes my breath away.

​Give me a sand dune, and I'll be like:

Image: Girl in dress leaping through succulents and sand dunes, from @TheHappyTalent on Instagram.

Happen me upon a slackline, and I'll be like:

Image: A girl holding a dog while walking on a slackline, from 3 Very Depressing Reasons We're So Addicted to Social Media.

​Even when I'm all dressed up, and physical activity was far from the afternoon's objective... it still feels SO good just to move, right? 

Image: Girl in yellow dress on monkey bars, from @TheHappyTalent on Facebook.

But... maybe kids just don't like it as much as they used to.

Maybe movement doesn't feel good when you're not used to moving? It would make sense, right? "Flow" is achieved when you strike the right combination of challenge and mastery. If you never move, movement begins to feel harder, and your mastery of movement diminishes.

Pondering this, I remembered something, James Emry, bestselling author of Positive-ly Uncertain: Learn the New Hack to Hit the Happiness Jackpot guest posted on The Happy Talent. In How to Be Happy -- Even When You're Programmed NOT to Be, he wrote:

You’re not lazy, we’re all lazy. In fact, you and I were hardwired to conserve energy in this way because that’s what was needed thousands and thousands of years ago.

Do you think your ancestors long ago played recreational sports? When they were done running miles on end to hunt down food, do you suppose they started a kickball league?

Everything was for fight, for flight, for food or for sex. Those were the times to expend energy, so we developed an “instinct for idleness.” There was significant evolutionary pressure, because idleness was useful for survival, and we passed this instinct on. 

Read more > 

It makes sense that kids would be lazy because they play on their phones all the time and never move, so movement just doesn't feel as good to them. It makes sense that they'd lazy because, given the opportunity, all people #ChooseLazy. 

But maybe it's more than just laziness. Maybe today's youth just do not have the gross motor skills, balance, or proprioceptive sense (i.e., muscle and joint control) to stand on and propel a board. 

After all, according to researchers, many of today's young children are literally incapable of playing tag without hurting each other. ​It's simply because they haven't done activities like that enough to be able to do them safely.

Which is quite unfortunate. As I wrote in Helicopter Parenting Gives Kids Cognitive, Emotional, and Physical Problems:

Their physical skills aren't all that's suffering -- related to the inability to physically navigate and manipulate your environment is the inability to learn about and discover new things in the world around you.

Moreover, independence and risk-taking are an essential part of children's development. Which is precisely why the first thing Disney does in all of its movies is kill off the parents (or, at least, turn them into bears).

​Read more >

​

​On a similar note, as I wrote in Kids' Games Are Getting More Dangerous, And It's Their Parents' Fault:

Children are hardwired to explore. Risk-taking (or, at least, the perception thereof) is in their nature. Risks tend to manifest themselves in one of six ways: 

1. Exploring heights
2. Handling "dangerous" tools, such as scissors, knives or hammers
3. Being near dangerous elements, such as water or fire (or, as was the case in Stand By Me, a dead body)
4. Rough-and-tumble play (which, as I mentioned above, is a way for kids to learn to negotiate aggression and cooperation)
5. Speed -- e.g. cycling, skateboarding, ice skating at a pace that feels too fast
6. Exploring on their own

When kids do these things, they will eventually fall down. Bruise their arm. Skin their knee. Maybe even break a finger. It will hurt. BUT...

Research by Ellen Sandseter, a professor of early-childhood education at Queen Maud University College in Trondheim, Norway, has found that kids who spend more time exploring on their own before the age of nine are less likely to to have anxiety and separation issues as adults. Likewise, kids who got hurt falling from heights when they were 5-9 years old are less likely to be afraid of heights at age 18.

Our minor injuries actually give us confidence. They teach us what our limits are, how to handle ourselves in scary situations... and that, even if something goes wrong and you get hurt, you can get better. (Resilience for the win!)

Read more > 

Propelling your own bike, scooter, or skateboard doesn't just FEEL god. It's also good for your physical and emotional development.

Of course, I could just be an example of an adult decrying today's youth. 

Or maybe... we're a little bit closer to Wall-E than we realize.

​That said, it's obviously better for a kid to have an electric skateboard than no skateboard -- or a skateboard they're not going to use because they're either lazy or incapable. At least that way, they still get some sense of independence, some ability to explore the world around them without constant supervision from mommy and daddy.

If you're going to get your kid a skateboard and aren't sure where to start, I recommend the Robert August Surf One, which is what I started out with. It's easy to learn on and has great component for the price (which, it's worth mentioning, is twice what it was when I ordered mine in 2012). I'm also a fan of my Jaseboard, which was designed to be indestructible. (I failed at jumping a curb once on mine, and it went shooting into the road and was hit by a large SUV -- and it was totally fine.)

But going back to the whole, "Serious question" thing. Serious question. Why do people buy their kids electric skateboards? I'm interested in your thoughts -- please share them!