My best skate buddy is my 4 year old. He got pretty into it last year when he was 3 and could start to go down banks and up and down a 1/4 pipe. We have a lot of scooter kids around here though and his one cousin is a pretty hardcore scooterer, so he sort of just thinks that they're the same thing. He was asking us for a scooter, well he was asking Mom cause he kinda knows I think they suck, so his grandparents have bought him a couple cause really they think they're the same thing too. My stance on scooters for little kids has lightened up a little, since getting the scooter it's helped his ability to balance and push on the skateboard, and it's a little more fun for him cause he can get going a lot faster on it. Like I said, he knows I don't like them so he almost seems embarrassed to ask to bring it to the park, but I figure the more I try to stop him from riding one the more he's going to want to so all I can do is make sure he brings his skateboard as well and try to get him to ride both. Hopefully he just outgrows the scooter, but I know he may just outgrow skating as well so right now I just try to get out with him and have as much fun as possible. I feel you guys on the babysitting thing too, it's hard to really get into skating when he's around cause my head is on a constant swivel making sure he's ok and not getting in people's way, but we go on mornings and stick to parks that are less busy and geared more toward beginners so I can still try to get some tricks in. He wants to skate pretty much every day, rain or shine, which is rad, but it's been hard convincing him and Mom that sometimes I just need to go skate by myself too.