Should a Child Ride? When Official Restrictions Aren't Enough
Parents, do you have a personal example where your child met the height or age restriction for a ride, but you felt they still shouldn't have ridden?
I received this e-mail from a reader this week. I'm publishing an excerpt here because I think it raises an interesting question:
"I recently took my 5 1/2 year old son on the Screaming Eagle (roller coaster) at Six Flags (St. Louis). The requirement for this ride is that a person be at least 42" in height he is nearly 47". Half way through the ride he started sliding under the safety restraint bar and has numerous bruises on his upper right arm.... My son is nearly 5" taller than the required posting (nothing else is posted about weight or body frame requirements), (so) I would assume that it would be safe for him to ride.
"I was... told that a parent's idea of safe is usually much different than that of the manufacturer and parks."
Great point. Often, the posted height limit on a ride doesn't come close to restricting all the kids who shouldn't ride.
Parents, do you have a personal example where your child met the height or age restriction for a ride, but you felt they still shouldn't have ridden? What do you think would be a better standard for that ride?
I'll start. Spiderman at IOA (my favorite ride, BTW) has a posted height limit of 40 inches. After hearing my rave about the ride to other grown-ups, my 40-inch, four-year-old daughter begged to ride.
I let her. (This was after she did two turns on Flying Unicorn, and begged for more.)
While I believe she was safely restrained by Spiderman's ride system, she hated the attraction. First, at 40 inches, she couldn't see half the screen action in front of her. Neither could she keep the 3D glasses on her face. And finally, the noise and commotion (made worse by the double images--because she couldn't wear the glasses) just overwhelmed her.
I'd recommend that parents wait until their kids are about six or so before letting them on this one.
Others?
From R Kitch
Posted January 6, 2002 at 5:37 AM
In June of 2001, my daughter, mother and I visited King's Island. It was a corporate day, the company she works for rented the park for the day and had a (very nice) catered lunch for the employees and their guests. I had wanted to ride Son of the Beast as soon as I heard of its construction and was very happy to have the opportunity to visit Kings Island. See my husband is totally TERRIFIED of coasters and I am a total FANATIC. It had been three years since my last visit to K.I. As soon as the gates opened, I went straight to the line up for the S.O.T.B. It was still an hour before they would start running the rides, but I knew if I didn't get in line right away I probably wouldn't get a chance to ride it. They still had the barrier up that separates you from getting into the queue lines so I decided but I decided to wait it out. My mother and 7 year old daughter was going to wait for me until I was finished riding. While we were in line waiting for them to open up the barrier my daughter BEGGED AND BEGGED to ride it with me. My daughter is a VERY BRAVE little girl and she does NOT scare easily. After waiting and listening to her beg for an hour I gave in and told her that if she met the height requirement she could ride with me. I warned her it was a very big and very fast coaster and that she might not want to ride it once we were in the loading area but she persisted. She met the 48" height requirement so, against my better judgement, I let her ride Son of the Beast with me. DO NOT EVER take a 7 year old child on this ride. From a childs perspective it is HORRIBLE. It whipped her poor little head around like she was a rag doll. I had to physically restrain her head (as best as I could) to keep her from getting whiplash, and I ended up pinching a nerve in my shoulder and neck because of the screwed up position I was in. I felt so HORRIBLE for letting my lil' girl ride it. She NEVER cried, but when we got off she told me she didn't want to ever ride it again. I was so proud of her though, my 7 year old did not shed a tear after this frightening ride. What made me feel worse is that this was her first real coaster ride. I wish it wouldn't have been such a big coaster. She had rode the beastie when she was 4 and loved it but it is NOTHING compared to S.O.T.B. Thankfully this did not spoil her sense of adventure and she did end up riding the Adventure Express about 10 times and the Viking Fury about 5 times, along with alot of other rides. I would advise all parents not to take a child under 10 years of age on Son of the Beast. Just to much coaster. But I can't wait to go back this year (2002) and ride it ALONE. In the future she will NEVER ride anything that I haven't rode first.
From Anonymous
Posted April 21, 2002 at 7:17 PM
First of all.You should wait till a kid is 6 years old to ride rides that arent "thrill rides."Then you should wait till they`re 8 to ride thrill rides.
For the kid who didnt like Spider-Man,she sucks.
Well, that post right before mine sounded intelligent before the last 10 words. Saying a 4-year old "sucks" because she didn't like or understand a ride? Grow up!!
This is funny...I just made a post about this in response to Aaron G's post on the riot at Great America...
Well, I'm not a parent, but I do recall an incident at Great America where a child was not allowed onto the Grizzly due to height restrictions. But the parents complained, so the worker (a bored teenager) relented and let the kid on. The scary part was, however, that everyone in the line for the Grizzly APPLAUDED the decision. What does THAT indicate about the mentality of Great America patrons?
Hey Robert...give me a rundown on Great America's safety record...I'm just curious...
From Anonymous
Posted April 23, 2002 at 8:08 AM
As a ride op and assistant supervisor for my ride grouping, I have had the privilege of seeing just hos far parents will go to get their kids onto the rides. Babies in shirts, haggling over two or three inches and even screaming at the ride op to let their child on are all tactics I've had used against me. All the posts on this thread seem to be from concientious, responsible parents. For any parent who still doesn't believe us about the importance of observing the height restrictions and using your own judgement, please remember this. Height restrictions are created by the ride manufacturer and the park to ensure the safety of the majority of their patrons, that is their patrons who are amongst those who are of average size.
The most important advice I can give to any parent at any theme or amusement park, or carnival, or your local shopping mall is this. If YOU, the parent, don't feel comfortable with your child going on a ride, regardless of the fact that they meet the height restriction, then don't let them ride. Once again: If YOU don't feel comfortable letting your child ride, then don't let them ride.
And to the individual a couple posts back who stated that the child who was scared to go on Spiderman "sucked": GROW UP!
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