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How young is too young?

rollermonkey

Strata Poster
I was just curious, but how young is too young to bring a child on a coaster, or other type of ride?

I know that there are some rides out there with no height restriction in place, but it still would seem odd to bring an infant on something besides a carousel or a park train...

Opinions?
 

CMonster

Giga Poster
Well, it (of course) depends on the coaster, if you're talking kiddie coaster, I'd say two or three would be good, but a slightly larger coaster, probably about four to six. Really depends on the kid, of course...
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
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Administrator
rollermonkey said:
...to bring an infant on something besides a carousel or a park train...
Two or three or four to six are not infants.
I personally don't see the point of bringing an infant on anything other than the tamest of rides.
 

Snoo

The Legend
Everything depends on the kid. If he/she is capable and willing, I don't see a age too young tbh.
 

Hixee

Flojector
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SnooSnoo said:
Everything depends on the kid. If he/she is capable and willing, I don't see a age too young tbh.
It's comments like that will end you up in prison. :lol:

But yeah, I agree, the kid has to make their own decision. Obviously, height is a big factor too, but once they're tall enough, they've got to make the decision themselves.
 

furie

SBOPD
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This was taken in the October after Maxi-Minor_furie was born (he was born end of July, so he was three month's old)
n1043162436_922_4055.jpg


Of course, there was no point in him actually going on the ride, at that age it's no different to being in a pram or something (other than the fact I was holding him, so it was close contact).

We were lucky though that MMF grew big and strong quickly. He was able to hold himself upright strongly at an early age.

He's always come with us to parks, and we've always let him have a say on what he wants to do. As long as he's tall enough and with my prior experience I've considered him "stable" enough to ride - he's been on what he wants.

Some successes (he loved frog hoppers and RMT at Alton), some failures (he cried on his first ride of Beastie) - generally just turned two here.

I'm very concious of the fact he needs to be a child though. He needs to not be forced onto the biggest thing he can ride on, but to enjoy what he enjoys. At Drayton for instance, we spend a LOT of time on Pirate Adventure which he adores, but very little time on the coasters or flat rides.

He's now tall enough for both Spinball and Th13teen at Alton, but he didn't ride either on Sunday - we had a lovely kiddie day in the farm yard, round the Sealife centre and in Cloud Cuckoo Land. He wants to ride both, but he's in no rush - so I think we've got the balance right. He doesn't fear rides, but he's not rejecting having fun for the sake of "ticking boxes".

As I say, he's big for age (not five yet) so it's been different for him (also because of the environment we've raised him obviously). I'd usually say that most kids it's a little older before they start to enjoy rides, but too young is simply not emotionally or physically capable of dealing with the ride. That is completely different per child, but for a child under a certain age (maybe 8 or 9 or something?), cajoling or forcing them onto a ride is a bad thing.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
We took our nephew on Cirkus Expressen at Liseberg when he was 2 years old, and he loved it. Last year (4 years old) he got on bigger stuff including Lisebergbanan and Tranan. I think that he is up to 7 credits so far, which is good seeing how little he have travelled.
He have always been interested in the bigger stuff, but everything is up to him if he passes the length limit.

^ I completely agree with you on forcing young people on rides, also you shouldn't taunt them if they do get scared on a ride they choose to go on either (personal experience...).
 

Snoo

The Legend
Hixee said:
SnooSnoo said:
Everything depends on the kid. If he/she is capable and willing, I don't see a age too young tbh.
It's comments like that will end you up in prison. :lol:

Haha.. now that made me laugh. Well done Hixee. :p
 
There's not a chance I would let my sister on something like Millennium Force (she's six, and not that she would ever go on it, I'm pretty sure she meets the requirement), simply because I'm an overprotective big sister and I'd be paranoid that her body couldn't handle it or something, despite her being extremely strong for her age.

That being said, I wouldn't consider someone a bad parent if they wanted to bring their younger child on a coaster, unless it was against their will.
 

madhjsp

Giga Poster
Thread title fail :roll:

If we're talking about toddlers, I don't think they would enjoy anything more intense than a kiddie coaster, so if I'm a parent I wouldn't even try to take them on anything large.

But if we're talking about a small child, I have to echo the sentiment that as long as they meet the height restrictions, it's up to the kid to decide. When he thinks he's ready to graduate from kiddie coasters and flat rides to bigger and better things, then by all means let him go for it. He might love it, or he might get the crap scared out of him and be afraid to ride coasters again for a year or two. But in that case, at least he tried and he'll feel good knowing the decision was his alone. I know this because Loch Ness Monster had that effect on me, and I didn't really overcome my coaster fear until I did a few rides on Apollo's Chariot, of all things.
 

rollermonkey

Strata Poster
Now that there's been a couple reasoned responses, here's the why of it.

This past weekend, I was at City Park Carousel Gardens in New Orleans with the wife and baby. (5 months old, 24+ inches and 16 lbs, sits upright unassisted.) We've brought her on a couple park trains and a carousel or two before and she seems to like them a little.

The park's rules allowed infants of any size/age on all but two of the rides, including the coaster. I've been on plenty of medium Tivolis and know that there really aren't any forces to speak of, and I brought her on. She didn't really show any reaction whatsoever.

Afterwards, I thought about it a bit and wondered what other people would think of this...
 

furie

SBOPD
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It's simply that a coaster ride is probably less "fun" to a baby than being bounced around on your knee to be honest. At that size, things are just a bit of a blur so a ride or coaster is no different to a trip in the car or in the buggy (only as I said above, she will get to be close to you - which is important).

As an "enthusiast", you have a realistic knowledge of what forces a ride gives out, and what your child is like. MMF's first coaster was at Southport, a Caterpillar coaster. That was 2006, so he was just over twelve month's old then, and loved it. He was well aware then of everything going on.

It's amazing how rapidly that happens by the way. One minute they're a gurgling bunch of rubbish, two minutes later they're stealing your car keys :) The change happens almost over night once they start to crawl - it's very rapid and quite shocking the advances they make.

Enjoy :)
 

rollermonkey

Strata Poster
She's not quite crawling yet, (not enough arm strength) but tonight, while getting some tummy time, she spun around about 270 degrees without any help.

...and on topic, I'll probably hold off on credit #2 until she's quite a bit older.
 

Martyn B

CF Legend
If the kid wants to go on it, and its safe to do so, then there's no problem I think. Just as long as they can sit on the seat.
 
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