How to Get Your Kids into Skateboarding

If you are a parent who had a skateboard when you were a kid, or if you are still into skateboarding, you are probably thinking about whether it’s a good idea to pass this hobby down to your kids. With all the potential falls that it entails, it may be more difficult to buy a skateboard for your kid than for yourself, and if your daughter or son is a teenager, then this may be an even harder decision because we all know how teenagers can be more fearless than parents want them to be.

However, contrary to what many people think, skateboarding isn’t just for fun – it also offers a lot of other benefits. And regardless of whether you are a skater yourself, or you’ve never owned a skateboard in your life, if your teenage kid has expressed the desire to ride a skateboard, it’s always better to be able to have a say into what they get, how they protect themselves, how to pick the right safety equipment and how they learn.

What Can a Kid Get from Skateboarding?

If you’re still on the fence about whether you should go to a skate store to buy a skateboard for your kid, you should probably learn about all the good that it can bring, and become aware as much as you can about the things that make you worried.

As a demanding physical activity, skateboarding is an effective and fun way to keep your kids healthy. People become interested in skateboarding for many different reasons. Some are introduced to it by friends or by the internet, others have it in their blood, some find it cool or fun, while others simply like challenges.

An Activity They Will Love

There are many kids who don’t like being in a team environment, so they aren’t drawn to playing cricket, football, or some other team sport. Those who don’t may prefer the individuality of a skateboard. In fact, even kids who don’t seem to be interested in any type of physical activity may fall in love with skateboarding easily, because it simply looks fun and cool.

There are also kids who simply don’t like playing sports, and them finding a physical activity that will keep them interested, like skateboarding, can make a huge difference. If you are worried about how much time your kid is spending in front of screens, and they simply don’t seem interested in any sports, getting them a skateboard may be just the solution you’re looking for. So in essence, skateboarding can be the perfect way to help your daughter or your son stay physically active.

Persistence, Responsibility and Discipline

Performing tricks with a skateboard is pretty hard and can take a lot of practice. Because of this, it teaches you how important it is to keep trying and stay disciplined. If you like a trick and you want to learn how to do it, you need to be determined, and you’ll need to put in a lot of time and dedication into it. While it’s hard to think about our kids falling – kids who learn how to skate, also learn how important it is to get up after a fall, dust off, and try again until they’ve achieved their goal.

Like with most things that matter in life, once you’ve figured out how to do a trick with a skateboard, you need to practice to perfect it. And with skateboarding, the possibilities of learning new things are endless, because there will always be something new that a skateboarder will want to accomplish. Skateboarders always want to keep trying new things so that they get better and better. All of this makes skating an activity that helps people stay focused, disciplined, and dedicated.

Because it’s such an individual activity, learning how to skateboard means that you’ll be your own teacher and coach. This will teach you how to do your research, get the job done, learn from your own mistakes, and never give up if you want to reach your goal. In other words, kids who are determined to learn how to skate, need to learn about responsibility, not only because they need to practice a lot, but also because if they want to keep skating, they need to take care of their skateboard.

Creativity and Sociability

While learning how to skateboard, your kid will have to get quite creative. They’ll have to decide what they want to learn, how they learn it, how hard they’ll practice, etc. It will be their own challenge, and not something that an adult, whether it’s a member of their family or a coach, can just expect from them. Furthermore, with many different skateboarding styles, your kid would have to choose their own thing, their own style, their own form of expression. Along with the feelings riding a skateboard provokes in people, this is another reason why skateboards are often seen as a symbol of freedom.

Groups of people riding skateboards, hanging out together, cheering for other skateboarders, helping each other are a common sight in the skateboarding community. Skateboarding can be a very sociable activity, even though it isn’t exactly a team sport. It makes people come together and create groups, which in many ways can help your kid in the future. It may lead to important friendships, and it can help them discover other talents they have.