Daughter fell off bike and scratched neighbours car parked in drive...

kerri_gt

Wow! just been reading through this thread with interest. Firstly OP, I am glad that your daughter is ok - I am sure we all remember similar tumbles when learning to ride a bike. I am amazed at the number of people who seem to object to a 4yr old girl learning to ride a bike on the pavement in front of her house - I know for certain this is where I learned to ride, and I am sure lots of other MSE too. She's hardly an anarchy causing teenager (or anyone of any age) tearing up and down the pavement intimidating pedestrians and causing wanton damage...she's a little girl who fell off her bike...seriously people, get some persepctive.

Now I am sure your neighbours daughter is rather p*ssed off that there are scratches on her new car - I know how annoying it is to come out of a supermarket to find a scuff or dent due to some careless person opening their door or moving a trolly without care for anyone elses property. However, these things happen (and she'd best realise that), if this was someone scratching her car in a car park she'd have to pay for the repiar herself.

Like some others, I would recommend ChipsAway who have just done my front two alloys (careless parking on my part) and they look fab. It will be cost effective, and I can highly recommend their service, my wheels look fab! They are also able to come to the car so could come out to your neighbours and complete the repair, prob in about 1hr, so your neighbour won't be inconvenienced by her car going into a garage. Plus, some SMART repairs are better than a respray, my car bonnet was resprayed by a dealer when it was valdalised...even though it was done by a dealer, it had to be redone as it didn't match the rest of the car.

I would think that once the dust has settled your neighbour will be more reasonable, after all, I am sure she had one or two 'incidents' just like your daughter when she was growing up.

laurz121

I learned to ride in a pub carpark (away from cars) as it was a wide open area with no risk of riding into a road or peoples property and allowed my parents to watch me from a distance. I wouldn't dream of letting anyone learn next to parked cars just like I wouldn't play football next to them

Flying-High_2

laurz121 wrote: »

I learned to ride in a pub carpark (away from cars) as it was a wide open area with no risk of riding into a rode or peoples property and allowed my parents to watch me from a distance. I wouldn't dream of letting anyone learn next to parked cars just like I wouldn't play football next to them

Very considerate:j...

goingforward_3

laurz121 wrote: »

I learned to ride in a pub carpark (away from cars) as it was a wide open area with no risk of riding into a road or peoples property and allowed my parents to watch me from a distance. I wouldn't dream of letting anyone learn next to parked cars just like I wouldn't play football next to them

I agree and my kids learnt on a big grass space no where near any cars..

Last yr i had just put my MG up forsale... it was immaculate and a prospective buyer was coming to view it.. i backed it down my drive but still on my property and a good 3 ft from the edge of the pavement. The numpty a few door down (who was then 11) decided to play tennis on the road outside my house... great till he let go of the tennis racket and it hit my car and scratched it in 4 places (taking it down to the bare metal!).

I wa livid and his mother said "he was only playing " anyway the buyer didnt turn up and i got it repaired which cost £275 and after much arguing the parents did pay up... originally though she wanted to pay me £10 a week but i refused to accept that and she gave it to me in one go.

CFC

sassy-one wrote: »

Whatever your reasons for allowing your daughter to ride her bike on the pavement/ in the street, that is your choice as a parent and no one here can advise you otherwise, it's what you see fit.

Completely and stupidly wrong. We can all advise how we like, however the OP is free to consider or reject our advice.

OP I suggest you do NOT let your 4 year old ride her bike on the pavement unless someone is walking besides her and she is kept literally under control. A parent observing from a distance, as another poster said, is simply preventing kidnap or assault, it is not proper supervision which is needed with a 4 year old and a mechanical object. Do not be fooled by 'cycle helmet' into thinking that she is safe. Your child is at risk. She can easily wobble into the road. Today a stationary car in the neighbours drive, tomorrow a moving car in the road. If she cannot ride a bike in your garden, and one of you can't take her to the park, and nobody can directly supervise and control her riding by walking next to her and make her keep her speed down, then don't allow her to ride a bike full stop. No bike won't kill her.

stebiz

twinmumagain wrote: »

Thank you so much for all the genuine replies.

I wont bother calling the CAB as I will pay but may take a few months. Hubby had 2 weeks holiday recently so this months payday will be dire.

Hubby only wants to pay £100 max. He has been and looked at marks and one is under the bumper so he thinks its impossible how it couldve got there. This one is about an inch long and the other about 1 1/2 inch.
I am obviously hoping she is willing to let these Chips Away people do it so I can pay this week and be done and dusted.

I would like to go really off topic too and say in the years I have been using these forums I have never been made to feel so worthless and rubbish!!
I know 100% I am a bloody good mum and I shall not explain my actions to anyone.

I'd pay 100 quid tops too. As for some of these replies, they are ridiculous. The posters either haven't got kids or have nannies looking after them 24/7. Kids will be kids after all. What a good job she had her helmet on! Might send her down the other end of the road in future.

Lum

irenee wrote: »

Dear oh dear - how this thread has run away

Agree with this, though I can see both sides on this one.

When I was a kid I had no real option but to play on the street. To get to the nearest park I had to cross a main road (main route into the town centre from the motorway) there was one park that could be gotten to via safer local roads, but this was some distance away so guess what, I had to ride my bike/skateboard/rollerskates/whatever in the street to get there anyway.

We are constantly reminded these days about how our kids are lazy and obese and spend all day in front of the TV/XBox and never get any exercise, so I say good on the OP for actually teaching their child to play properly and for putting in effort to actually supervise it.

That said it's impossible to take accidents, this one would surely have only taken a second to happen, not enough time to run over and grab her and whisk her away to safety. Just not realistic.

That said, this comment really wound me up:

A car is an object that gets you from A to B - not a precious jewel that requires pampering

Your car may be an object that gets you from A to B, but to many people they are much much more and it's worth being aware of this. Not directing this at you personally but it's this kind of attitude that leads to people thinking it's acceptable to let their kids smack their doors into the next car in the Tesco car park, or to scuff someone's bumper and drive off.

Outside of a house a car is the most expensive object most people will ever own and to many people they are far more than just a tool to be used an abused. Whilst I can certainly agree with the "LOL 5yr old Punto" comments, I think back to my first car, a 14 year old poverty-spec 1.3 Ford Escort that I thought was the most wondrous thing ever back when I got it.

Then I look at my current two, one is a company Mondeo that I couldn't care less about other than it not getting so badly damaged that my boss gets annoyed, and the other a 17yr old very rare Japanese import that I have put a lot of money into preserving, thinks like a £550 underseal, £380 to refurbish the alloy wheels, £285 on a paintwork correction so that it's completely free of scratches and swirls and looks like new.

I'd certainly be fuming if someone put a scratch on it. Especially one that went down to the primer.


Edit:

magpiecottage wrote: »

I can understand why they are upset that their pride and joy has been scratched. It would happen sooner or later, though and the position of the two marks seems inconsistent with one incident (in other words, I wonder if at least one of them was already there.

Pedal + side of handlebar?

sparkleworld

twinmumagain wrote: »

The owner of the car stormed round to me and I went out to inspect the damage
no concern for my daughter who literally went over the handle bars


My kids were all out the front whilst my husband mowed the lawn. Their nana was with them the whole time.

Why did the car owner confront you if at least 2 other members of your family were supervising your daughter- did they feel that you were the easy target or did they not fancy challenging your husband on the matter.

How did your daughter manage to damage the car which is parked in that position with out damaging the other car- the space looks too narrow to get a bike into with out damaging the other vehicle.

Lum

sparkleworld wrote: »

twinmumagain wrote: »

The owner of the car stormed round to me and I went out to inspect the damage
no concern for my daughter who literally went over the handle bars

Ok front axle/bolt + side of handlebars then.

Point is on a childs bike there are still plenty of spiky things at those two heights.

sparkleworld

I apologise if i came across as pedantic Lum , my query wasn't about wether the bike had caused the damage but if you look at the photograph posted by Op I cant see how it would have damaged the one car with out the other whilst her little girl still managed to go over the handlebars she must have been sandwiched between the two cars