what skates should i buy

Question
I have a 6 yr old who wants roller skates for christmas. My husband and I are going back and forth on "what kind" to get her. I say roller skates he says inline skates. What should we start her out on? She's never skated before but all she has talked about since she was 4 was wanting a pair of roller skates. Can you give me any advice on what to get her? I would also like to know if getting her inline skates are the best fit for her can the wheels be adjusted so that she can start off "slow" with the movement of the wheels like the 4 wheel roller skates. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Shari,
  I would definitely start her off with regular roller skates.  The transition from roller skates to inlines will be much easier this way.  Starting kids off on inlines can often be very discouraging for 2 reasons.  One is that you cannot slow the wheels down and the other is their ankles are just not conditioned enough to keep the skates straight up on the wheels.  

99% of the kids that try to learn on inlines have trouble because their ankles turn inward so they end up skating on the side of the wheels causing their legs and ankles to hurt and tire quickly.  If this is allowed to happen for any length of time they can damage their ankle bones.

With roller skates she'll have good ankle support and you can slow the wheels down by tightening the nut on a couple of the wheels. This will allow your daughter to learn at her own pace and not be afraid skating.

When you buy the skates, check to make sure each wheel has a nut on it.  Some of the cute skates like Barbie skates cannot be tightened down, nor do they roll very well, because they have an axle that goes through 2 wheels (as all skates do) but the nut is only on one of those wheels.  It's more or less like a wheel spinning on a rod instead of letting the bearing do their job.

Good Luck.....it sounds like you have a future skater in your family.  If you want to encourage her to improve, have her take some kids group skating lessons at your local skating rink.  Who knows, one day she could very well be a Gold Medal skater!

If I can help any further, feel free to write me again.

Pat