Advice for young kids on roller coasters

[shwilson24]

We are going to Kings Island this week, and my oldest son is going to be barely above 48 inches and finally able to ride some bigger roller coasters. I love roller coasters and reaching this milestone of being able to ride these things with my kids has been one of the things I've most looked forward to on my parenting journey. My son is all for it and wants to ride it all. Every roller coaster I show him he asks "is that 48 inches?" and is disappointed if it isn't. He's got no fear and is really looking forward to each one he can ride.

His mother.... is very nervous about the whole thing. She wants to check out each ride before he rides it. I've told her many times that if he's tall enough it's safe for him. But he is a very tiny boy. He is very skinny. On top of that he has ADHD and isn't very emotionally mature. She is worried he will not understand how scary the ride will be or if the ride is hurting him, or that he will try to get off the ride if he gets scared. She's worried about him getting a neck injury or back problems because he's so tiny.

Does she have a point? Am I letting my desire to share the excitement with my son blind me to these issues? I will be with him the whole time and obviously will be watching him closely. I don't want anything to happen to him and since this is obviously a point of contention between his mother and I, if anything does happen, I know it will be "my fault". Anyone have any pertinent advice? The pushback is bumming me out on something I've been looking forward to for a long time.

[King Ding Dong]

My oldest is very similar.  I learned long ago not to take Mom on hikes in the woods where they might find a fallen tree to climb on.  If he fits the specs of the ride nothing bad is going to happen.  The “better to as for forgiveness than ask for permission” rule applies here.  My oldest has it all.  ADHD, ASD and has a BMI that on the charts says “you are dead”.  Been riding coasters since he was tall enough, the other one is as stocky as a linebacker and was the one that was scared until age 11. 
 

Vortex beat the hell out of “linebacker” and we had to go home, “bean pole” did fine and loved it and rode again many times. 
 

Go by mental readiness, and trust the engineers to take are of the rest.  Unless we are talking about Intamin. 

[disco2000]

Yep all is good.  The Bob Ross plush dolls stayed on Orion and the rides are tested with legless water dummies, so your kid will be fine.

Look at all the kids over the years who had parents that had them wear platform shoes or stuff their shoes with stuff to make them reach the magical height and none of them flew out. 

There is a factor of safety inherent in the rider specs as well.  Believe me, no park or manufacturer wants to be responsible for some little kid flying out because they just barely met the rider requirements.

Keep in mind when rides like Racer and Beast opened, they were just buzz bars that didn't go down very far with no seatbelts and no middle divider.  No little kid flew out of them.  We had a lot of freedom in those seats back then.  Now those rides have seatbelts, adjustable restraints to better fit to the person in the seat, and a middle divider so a single rider doesn't go sliding back and forth around turns.  You know all the fun stuff when we were kids lol.

And of course you will be sitting next to him probably holding on to his leg as well LOL.

Enjoy the day.  You will create memories for you and your son that will last a lifetime.

These are the fun moments of going to the park.  Enjoy them.  Tell her to stay home if she will be a debbie downer

[HandsUp]

I would 100% go by what the kid wants to do. Mine are 9 and 7. My son just hit 54'' and will do whatever he can (he and I just did front row Orion yesterday-epic). My daughter, on the other hand, wanted to hold off on Banshee even though she's 52''...up until now she's done everything. I've always felt like pressing them to do too much, or trusting your own safety guidelines over engineers' expertise is misguided. It's supposed to be fun--if he rides and doesn't like it, no biggee.

[shwilson24]

Just wanted to check in to say that he rode every coaster he was tall enough for and generally loved them all. This picture cracked me up, especially because when it was over he wanted to do it again. We even rode The Beast twice in a row. He's a brand new enthusiast!

[disco2000]

Love the facial expression!  Looks like he is holding on to you for dear life.  Glad to hear he loved it and joins the enthusiast community!

Great picture!  Thanks for sharing.

[Elizabethjohanson]

My advice specially for parents if your child goes to the roller coaster ride then you need to check all the safety precautions like seat belt and all that stuff because safety is our first priority. No compromise in safety precautions.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Elizabethjohanson

[medford]

I'm not sure what the above is trying to say....  I'll just add that when I ride with my youngest kids I always make sure they have their seat belt strapped on first then I do mine.  The employees do a great job of checking this (and frankly it is overkill on most, if not all coasters) but it gives me peace of mind knowing that I checked it myself as well.

As far as getting kids on coasters, I recommend letting them set the pace with perhaps some gentle nudging where appropriate.  I'll never forget taking my niece one day for her first trip on The Beast.  As she got off, she looked to her right and asked "What is that?"  I told her it was Vortex and she promptly asked if we could ride that.  I proceeded to ask her if she knew that it went upside down...  She immediately replied "yes" so off we went and she rode Vortex.

My 3 kids were different; oldest has ADHD but has never really minded waiting in lines.  We tended always go mid week in the evenings when he was growing up, so the park was never super crowded, but as a 4 year old he was on Drop Zone, Beast, Vortex, etc....  If he was tall enough, he wanted to ride.  Our daughter was always scared of coasters.  She is 9 now and finally took her first ride on Mystic Timbers and The Beast this summer.  She has always been very hesitant, so we've gently nudged her a few times, even offered bribes but she wasn't biting that apple.  She has finally learned that she loves a lot of the rides she was too scared to ride the summer prior (though with that being a Covid year, she only went once).  Part of the reason why she is more willing; our youngest was still 5 last summer and he was the kid that at 3 was ****ed he couldn't ride the bigger coasters at Dollywood or KI.  Thankfully both parks had lots of options, but even on their Dragonfly (similar to FAAC in concept (though much better) at KI) he rode it happily while our then 7 year old daughter stood at the exit side of the station and watched.  I think she realized she's too big for much of Planet Snoopy and she couldn't have her little brother showing her up.  Neither have been upside down yet, but if the now 6 year is tall enough for anything that will take you thru a loop, he's going to ride it and my daughter will probably grudgingly follow along.

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

Make sure that your child has not in fact managed to lose one or more limbs while standing in the queue line.