How much responsiblity can an 9yr old handle?

[nakomis0]

Hey guys.. Heres the thing my GF has a 9yr old son. And I think hes a wuss . (I'm kidding any rude remarks should be taken lightly)

She finally started to leave him home alone for 15 minutes while we run to the store.

I live on a dirt road and theres people around but its not like Im in a city by far. And today he was riding his bike and she wouldn't let him ride in this little subdivision right next to use while we ran to the store.

I thought it was no big deal I see kids that look his age doing it all the time.

He also won't ride a quad. He actually runs from it when I start it. He even runs from it when I start the 220 Bayou? wth? lol

So I'm telling her that her son needs more responsibilties and needs to not be sheltered so much.

We have 3yr olds, riding quads and battery operated pocket bikes. at 3??! and this kid can't even stand still while a quad starts.

And it really bothers me cause I want to do more with the kid than play video games but that seems to be all he knows how to do.

So can this kid be left alone, how far can he ride his bike alone, how can i get the wuss on a quad and any other comments you might wanna make. :) thanks

[SadisticShee]

Man at nine years old I was smokin Blunts and lighting fires.......

[nakomis0]

I wasn't doing the above comment but I know I was building ramps and jumping it with my Huffy.. wishing it was a GT Dyno.

[bansheeguy77]

yeah man i know what your saying. my nephew is the same way (hes 8). but id love to spend time with him and go play soccer or baseball or any sort of activity. but all he wants to do is play video games. i used to take him ot the track with me back when he was like 5 and he would love it but now he never wants to. times have really changed back at that age i was never in the house.
alot of it probably lies in his friends. his mom needs to quit sheltering him so much and give him some responsibilities. as long as the area is trusted and he can get in the house if need be then there shouldnt be a problem with it. ya just gotta force him to go out and throw some baseball or football with ya. have his buddies play sports with him. but then again some kids are just that way....

[n00b on a 400ex]

i know how it feels, i was pretty much sheltered for the first 12 years of my life, living in a small *** fishing village, didnt learn anything. i wish i had something to ride back then...

[400exrules]

a friend of mine that lives around the corner is like hooked on video games. Ive know him since i was like 4 and we always played video games and stuff on the weekends, but i got older and started playin sports and ridin my bike all the time (diamondback) but he kept playin. He still plays video games today, im a sophmore in high school and hes a freshman, and hes gettin fat as hell....hes lazy as **** and is always, i mean ALWAYS sittin on his fat ***, eatin some kind of sugar filled candy or playin video games. I mean, i used to play alot of video games too, like every kid did, but he still plays em and doesnt do anything else. I remember i would spend all weekend swimmin in my pool, or tryin to ride wheelies better on my diamondback while he would sit and play games. And now i hardly ever hang out with him cuz im just sick of video games and thats all he wants to do. I turn on my ps2 now like once every 2 months. Every day he will be like...OOH I CANT WAIT FOR THIS NEW GAME TO COME OUT ITS GONNA BE BADAZZ, and he'll start talkin about it and im just thinkin *shut the hell up, i dont care u loser*.....and im like OHHH i cant wait for my new tires to get here.........and he's just like *mmmk, I CANT WAIT FOR THAT GAME!!!!!!!*

Oh and by the way, his mom treats him like the biggest damn baby every too, and he is one too cuz of her, hes a big ***** baby.So the way she treats him has somethin to do with it too.

But she needs to keep him outside the house as much as possible, away from the tv and stuff so he doesnt turn into a fat lazy techno nerd

[YFZ450Ridr]

my mom started to leave me home alone for the first time when i was 7 or so.

once i hit 9 i could go ride my bike around where ever and jump ramps as long as i checked in after an hour.

id say if he is 9 he can take some more responsibility then he has right now. seems like your g/f spoils and babies him. make him a rough tuff SOB, show him how to ride.

[born-2-race]

I'd definatly try to get him to start riding. I got my 1st quad when I was 9 and it kept me out of the house. See if any of his friends ride. That might make him more interested. Try riding with him on the back if hes not too afraid.

had a gt dyno bike when I was in 6th grade, so that is umm... 10 maby. and I rode that thing a lot. if I remember corectly,, I would ride moast anywhere I wanted. I just had to check in every 1hr or so.

I had my first quad when I was 7ish, I really cant remeber. from 5 - 7 years old. It was a yamaha zinger, I still have it today. (15 years old) . infact I still drive it, to get the mail and stuff.

I had a mini bike at 10 ish. it was a pice of junk. but was fun. then a dirtbike a cupple months later, which was a reall piece of junk, that wasent mine. I just rode it. I think it was my cousins. then I had a cr80.that was too fast. so at the same time I got a xr80 which was 4stroke. then got the cr80 running. just got rid of all the dirtbikes and have a 400ex.

I had my first eingine apart in 7th grade.( briggs and stratton.) got it from the dump and got it running. still have it and it runs mint.

did the first top end rebuild on a 4stroke eingne in,,, well I took it apart in 7th grade I think, and put it together in 9th grade. that was the xr 80 infact.

well anyway. take the vidieo games and put a limit on it. say like 2hrs a day. and strap him to that damn quad and drive him around. no matter how much he squeals. he will thank you later,... maby. maby get him a 4wheeling game to play, so he sees how cool they are.

[400exrules]

take him to some races or somethin, thats how i got into the atv scene. I'd had never even seen a sport quad i dont think till, or i dont remember, till i went to the drag races with my sisters boyfriend when i was like 11, and i was just awwed at it, and fell in love. I begged the hell outta my parents to take me to the races every weekend, and we did go alot. And i just kept dreamin and workin and if you look in my sig you can see how it turned out :D

find a girlfriend that doesnt have a kid thats a P ussy hah

[honduh440]

give him a beer and tell him to man up

[Andrew400ex]

Originally posted by SadisticShee
Man at nine years old I was smokin Blunts and lighting fires.......
I like this kid,haha..represent dirt jerzee,******

[SadisticShee]

Originally posted by Andrew400ex
I like this kid,haha..represent dirt jerzee,******
Its central Jerz Ya heard? I see you rock a stanger. Right on brotha

[future 450?]

u think ure gf's son is a wuss i kno a kid who's lik 11 nd he cry's when ever he sees my dog he think it'l eat em nd its the dog is lik 10lb nd when ever i start my 300 w/stock pipes he goes runing in2 my house, jus stick the kid on the back of lik a 250 or 300 nd rip as fast as u can lik so the bike is screamin he'll get scared at first but lik it, it worked w/my friend

[Butters]

yeah sounds like the kid is sheltered to me. if i were you i would do something to man him up. get him a bb gun and teach him how to shoot it or something. or kill something in front of him. then everytime he sees something he'll think it wasn't as bad as seeing something die.

[AZblaster44]

By 7 or 8 I was riding my bike 3-4 miles to school everyday then coming back to an empty house untill a few hours later when my mom came home.

My nephew is 10 almost 11 and he rides a quad plays lots of sports and thanks to his mom, her husband, and me he isn't babied enough to be a sissy anymore. Granted he used to be like that but thats because my step mom and everyone else babied the hell out of him. If you don't start giving him mor eresponsibility hes gonna be the kid that ends up living at his parents all his life, never getting married (or laid for that matter) and if your really serious about your g/f I dont think your gonna want that ;)

IMO a kid needs to be active and left to learn some things on his own, its healthy and will prepare him better for when he's older and enters "real life":)

[Cdaleracer]

IMO opinion as a female, he is too young to be left alone. With all those weirdos lurking around, you just cannot trust anybody.

Now the bike thing, she probably should let him ride where ever as long as he checks in every so often and he is with a friend, just like somebody else said.

I'm a mother of a 3 year old, and I know where she is coming from. Except my 3 year old is doing tricks on the quad. Now the quad isn't running at the time, but he wants it to be!

Definitly get him into sports or something. That running away from quads is sissy-ish. Plan a Saturday just you and him, take him to do manly things!

[400exrules]

Originally posted by Cdaleracer
Plan a Saturday just you and him, take him to do manly things!

GO GET SOME RED MEAT AT HOOTERS!:macho

[JDiablo]

i say duct tape him down onto the frigging quad and give it hell :devil:

[hessianmx111]

If you don't watch out he could end up like this kid in my class, he's a sophomore and will be a junior in 7 days. The kid crys all the time and crys when he has to get up infront of the class and speak. His damn mom still walks the boy into school everyday. I feel real bad for the kid and I dont know much about him but from what I hear it's all his mom's fault.

[nowukno]

My son will be 4 yrs old in july and he loves to ride quads , he even rides a little yamaha 80 by himself , with the throttle adjusted ofcourse , he does really well on it , its very funny to watch him because he has to reach very far for the handelbars and he stops every minute or two and says "Hey dad you wanna ride wit me" and "Did you see me spinnin wheels?"

[bens250ex]

maybe you could get him to ride with you and you could go slow and stuff and if he wonts to run when u start it up justshow him that its not going to hurt him and show him it can be fun and all that sort of stuff...

[LTZ400rider]

give him a carburetor and a manual and tell him to take it apart and assemble it, i seen it on king of the hill

[Tommy 17]

this is from my point of view and my experiences...

when i went to college last august i was amazed at how sheltered some people were... lil mamas boys and dadddys girls that have never done a thing wrong in their life... couldn't even make it on their own...

#1 they sat in their room bawling their eyes out that they didn't want to be there... a few left and went home... coudln't handle it...

#2 the ones that went out to a frat party drank beer for the 1st time got drunk... they started drinking every night bc they've never done it before and didn't know how to handle it... girls were screwing every guy on the campus... basically the darn kids went wild bc they coudln't handle it... they were free for the 1st time in their lifes and they didn't know how to handle it... i know a few kids there that bascially drank and screwed their way out of college bc thats all they did till they failed out...

#3 i seen a few kids get in some bad situations at parties bc they didn't know any better... girls gettin date raped... boys getting their face beat in bc they dont' know how to act around people...


heres how i was raised...

#1 i could do pretty much anything as long as i didn't lie to my rents, i told them where i was going, and they trusted me...

#2 i could go around the neighborhood probably 5 to 6 blocks long on my bike when i was around 6 or 7... by the time i was 11 or so i was riding half way across town with my friends... but i learned to be street smart and not do something stupid...

#3 in h.s. my parents let me drink on the weekends... i could have girls over when ever... heck me and my g.fs would be back in my room for hours with the door closed... just so i didn't lie to them and i didn't drink and drive it was ok...

#4 yeah theres alot of weirdos out there but if u teach ur kid to stay in a group and not talk to strangers... and what to do in a situation like that they'll be fine... not letting them out in the real world is what can get them in trouble... they won't know how to handle the situation if u shelter them...

now i don't care to ever drink again its nothing big to me... i don't party that much at college bc i've partied enouf in h.s... and my 3.69 average shows that in college...

guess what i'm tryin to say is that if u don't let them get use to things early in their life... when they are older and it matters they will go wild or won't be able to handle it...

[riley racing]

Coming from a mother of a 9 year old that I try and shelter from this ucky world I say he does need some responsibility. I live in a very small town and the super market is only about 5 minutes form the house. I will leave our son home BUT!!! he knows to stay upstairs and not to answer the phone or the door for any reason at all. Plus he has the two dogs (Beagle & Goldne Retreiver) in the house with him. I give him my cell # in case he hears anything he is to call. Plus my in-laws just live about 1/4 down the road and I may be only gone for 1/2 hour and the max.

As for the quad thing boy he has ome issues. My son got his first snowmobile when he was 2 and was drag racing that at the age of 3, then can the quad at the age of 3 and racing it at the age of 5. Now he has been racing Nationally for 3 years. Plus I have a 5 year old daughter who has been racing her quad for a little over a year now. Also try to get he involved with some sorta of sports program. Anything that gets him out of the house and gets him to socialize. I don't know what I do if my children we in the house all the time.

I do say that my children are sheltered but they both very active. You can keep them protected from something but don't smother them because in time they will rebel and it won't be pretty.

Good luck with all of this!!!!!

[wilkin250r]

It's too late. If he's is actually "afraid" of the quad, there is no hope for him.

To a 9yr old boy, a motorcycle of ANY sort should be the coolest thing in the entire world. Even if he doesn't know how to ride it, he should have the desire to ride it. Just the fact that he's missing that desire says it's a lost cause.

[400exrules]

Originally posted by wilkin250r

To a 9yr old boy, a motorcycle of ANY sort should be the coolest thing in the entire world. Even if he doesn't know how to ride it, he should have the desire to ride it. Just the fact that he's missing that desire says it's a lost cause.

i agree.....when i was real little i was really into motorcycles and trucks......didnt matter wut kind or if i knew how to drive it or anything, i just realy liked them. And i dont know why. I guess its just a guy thing, we love things that are loud and fast, most of us atleast........its a natural thing

[z400roosteR]

My up bringin is similar to tommy's, i turned out just fine. And to the guy that started this thread......Get a Quad video game since the kid is hooked on that **** and get him feeling the game and liking it then show him the real thing. Might work/.?

[trailgoon]

Originally posted by LTZ400rider
give him a carburetor and a manual and tell him to take it apart and assemble it, i seen it on king of the hill

That's a great episode. "Bobby now take your carbuerator and go to your room."

[trick450r]

i got an LT80 when i was 5...every DAY i rode it untill dark...i dont remember video games or anything at that point

imm eleven and can do watever i wan

Originally posted by yamhhablastermx
imm eleven and can do watever i wan

can you go buy porno? NO
can you go to a strip club? NO
can you drive on the road? NO
can you buy alcholic beveriges? NO

reconsider you staitment about " doing whatever I wan" . you are verry wrong.

[cool 300ex]

I htink he could handel it. Heck i use to ride my bike around all the time when i was like 7. Then sometimes at my gram's around the block on the side walks in the city.I been riding a quad in the woods by my self seense i was 11.

[400exrules]

Originally posted by cool 300ex
I htink he could handel it. Heck i use to ride my bike around all the time when i was like 7. Then sometimes at my gram's around the block on the side walks in the city.I been riding a quad in the woods by my self seense i was 11.

ehh even as an adult its not a great idea to ride alone in the woods

[Tommy 17]

Originally posted by 400exrules
ehh even as an adult its not a great idea to ride alone in the woods

my friend learned that the hard way... he wrecked one time riding alone and broke his leg... 9 hours later he crawled out of the woods... noone knew where he was at...

[400grl]

As the mother of an 8 and 10 year old, I don't leave my kids home alone for any length of time. Well....I did once. For about 5 minutes....and they were fine. They are just starting to get to the age where I ask them every once in a while if they want to stay home while I run to the store for a few minutes. They don't feel comfortable enough yet....but i know it's close to when they won't mind. My 10 year old daughter is allowed to ride her bike outside by herself, but she can't go far and she can't go out of sight of the house without being with a friend. Even with a friend she has to make sure I know exactly where she is going to be riding......and I mean exactly! Too many wierdos out there......why tempt fate? Yes i have a tight grip on my kids, but my job is to make sure they grow up. And I take that job seriously. I'd rather be overprotective than underprotective.

And there is no hurry to grow up, people. My 8 year old son likes video games, he had a quad and never really rode it.....so I didn't force it on him. He wasn't afraid of it, but it just wasn't his thing....he'd ride it around but just didn't really enjoy it like I do........just because I like them doesn't mean I should expect my kids to like them. My son is a whiz at any game he plays.....I'm actually considering seeing if he can be a tester for kids games. He is also active at school, great at playing ball, and loves to swim. Just because he's not running around the house in a helmet and boots doesn't make him any less of a little man. And here's a news flash.....9 year old little boys can still be afraid of things. Doesn't mean they are going to turn into pale wierdo's with no social life when they are older.......it means someone needs to take a little time with him and figure out what scares him about the quad....and help him get over that fear - without degrading him or making him feel bad for being afraid!!!

And stop trying to say a 9 year old little boy should nut up and stop being a wuss. He's got tons of time to grow up!!! Boys are sweet and loving and wonderful little people.......why be in such a hurry to convert them to the raging a-holes some of them are just bound to become?

I'm sorry......I love my son. I love him for being the sweet, loving, thoughtful, caring little person he is......whether he rides a quad or not......and it makes me a little defensive to hear everyone carrying on about another little 9 year old that sounds alot like him. :macho