As you are doing this, how do you explain it to your child?
"Rulles are meant to be broken"
"Ignore the safety concerns. Take the risk"
"We don't care what is best for you. As long as you have fun, it's okay"
I'm sorry. I don't agree with your opinion at all.
You're taking what I said out of context. If you'll read my post, I specifically state that there's nothing wrong with trying to get him on if you aren't doing anything wrong. That you're not "cheating" if you will.
If it comes down to .25 of an inch, like it or not, whether or not your kid gets to ride is going to be the choice of the height checker at the time. That's all there is to it. Maybe one CM is in a crappy mood and won't let them ride (it's happened to us), but the next might consider them to meet the requirement. My explaination to my girls - and yes, I've had this exact situation happen for the past two years - is that they're so close to the limit, that some checkers consider them tall enough, others don't. And so if one says they can't ride, and they want to check back later and try, we do that. I see nothing wrong with handling it this way, especially since I respect the CM's decision and move along. I don't believe that that is instilling in them some sort of "rage against the machine" attitude.
And of course. I ALWAYS tell my kids I don't care what's best for them. In fact, I'm encouraging them to wrestle alligators in the swamps of Louisiana. SAFETY BE DAMMED!!!
Come on, give me a break. We're talking about a possible .25 inch difference in height, and a kid that does nothing but talk about how much he wants to ride a certain attraction. Does that mean that there's something wrong with my parenting skills if as a result of that I might get his height checked on more than one occasion to attempt to get him on the ride he's so desperately talked about?? Especially if I'm not cheating in any way, and I'm respecting those CM's that deem him unable to ride?? I would argue that it's quite the opposite... That I'm doing my best to give my child the experience they want, within the confines of the rules. Consider it "testing weak spots in the fence" to check him more than once if you like, but it's natural that you'll get different opinions with different checkers. Nothing wrong with trying.
And my comments regarding safety of rides was merely to illustrate that kids are plenty safe at the 40 inch requirement. I was in no way suggesting it should be your goal to begin attempting to smuggle your kids onto rides at 37 inches... Just that they are engineered to a safety point somewhere below 40 inches, so you should feel comfortable right at that height mark. As I said in my earlier post, find me one instance of a child injury on a ride specifically because they were .25 inch under the mark.
Think about it for a second... There's probably up to an INCH of varyance in kids' height just based on the shoes they're wearing that day!!!! So a ride with a 40 inch limit is really what... 39 inch tall kids? 38 1/2?? If he wears shoes with bigger soles to get him over 40, he'll instantly be let on the ride, but is that extra .25 inch of sole going to protect him in any way from any injury possibly sustained? I don't think so. This varyance, along with insurance reasons, is why these rides are engineered for safety at a level below the posted height requirement.