How do kids learn to ride a bicycle?

[Rof L Mao Esq]

Too busy to teach your child to ride a bike? Outsource it! - TODAYMoms

In Eckler’s case, squeamishness drove her to seek help. She couldn’t stand the thought of watching her kid fall, and argues in a post on Mommyish that hiring someone to teach bike riding is no different than doing the same for swimming or music. “At the end of the day, she knows how to ride a bike. End of story,” she told TODAY Moms. But her post sparked mommy judgment. Why? “I think it’s just because a lot of people don’t know something like this is available,” she said.


Does this ring any bells, dads? Or raise any red flags?

[nivek]

I taught both my kids to ride a bike, swim and play guitar and these things will always be amongst my best memories especially the bike riding ...... the funniest memory was when my daughter was five, we bought her a new bike for Christmas and I decided not to transfer the stabilizers from her old bike, it was time for her to ride unaided.

There's a college at the back of us and on Christmas day I took her and her new bike on the deserted car park, she was nervous and made me promise to hold on to her, I held on for about fifteen feet and then stopped and watched her carry on going peddling like mad and still shouting "don't let go daddy", she didn't stop until she realized I wasn't there anymore and then she fell off, she stood up hands on hips and looked at me accusingly whilst I roared with laughter on the other side of the car park, she marched over and said "naughty daddy" but I could see how proud of herself she was.

I had to stand in that car park for two hours watching her show off her new skill, I almost got frostbite , worth every second though.

If you're lucky enough to have the opportunity to have moments like these and then "outsource" them, then you really didn't want kids in the first place.

[Traveler]

I wish my dad or stepdad had helped me learn...as it is my dad doesn't know how to ride a bike himself! I was actually taught by an older neighbor boy, Dominic. He taught both me and his younger sister in the same afternoon. He was a nice boy, and very sports oriented for a 13 yr old.

If I was a mom, there would be no way that I'd let anyone other than me or my husband teach our child to swim or bike ride. Why would I deny us those memories? I realize the economy is tough and both parents work in a lot of families, but quality time is just as important!

[Rof L Mao Esq]

Mine is kind of similar to nivek's with my daughter when she was barely six.

She had been riding on the training wheels long enough that she knew the basics about riding the streets of our small town with her dad, and she was starting to get pretty comfortable with the idea that the bike just wouldn't fall over no matter what she did. I knew it had been long enough.

To increase our chance of success I waited to have the big ride on a day when her mom was out of town, as it turned out the same day her eldest daughter, on her way to med school, was running in the San Francisco Marathon. I thought, "this is the day", and we rode over to the small high school nearby. I told her, "you can walk the bike home, or you can ride it home, it's up to you" as I took off the training wheels with the wrench I'd brought. So of course she was mad at me before we even got started...

It took a while, but then came that moment when she realized she was on her own, and as she was still angry with me she just kept going, back toward the house! What a magnificent sight that was, and I wanted to just watch her go, but once I was probably fifty yards back, I knew I had to race to catch up with her with the extra wheels across my handlebars, to make sure she didn't get herself in trouble on the two blocks back to the house.

Once I reminded her what she was now doing, and that it was a skill she would have the rest of her life, she got over being mad at me and we rode back to the school to practice. Then she spent another hour crashing every time she tried to start off on her own, getting more and more mad at me because I hadn't told her there was still more to learn...

Now we ride together all the time and it's one of our great pleasures. We're moving to a bigger city soon that has excellent bike trails and lanes, and I can't wait.

[Bigger Brother]

If you're lucky enough to have the opportunity to have moments like these and then "outsource" them, then you really didn't want kids in the first place.

Exactly.

Some decades later I can still remember the day my dad removed the training wheels from my first bike and pushed me off up the street and into a whole new world! I was so proud, but I guess he was even more so.

My dad also taught me how to look after my bike, how to adjust the brakes, how to oil the chain and how to fix a puncture. I'm sure that there are mums who can teach these things but their kids will never experience that moment when levering the tyre off the wheel and dad says, "Don't tell your mother that we used her spoons!", then winks at you knowingly. Our secret!

We've just had a gloriously sunny Fathers' Day weekend in Australia and it was great to see more Dads than usual out with their kids riding their bikes in the parks.

[Marx]

I posted videos here before of my daughter being taught, by me, how to ride her bike... including me running short of breath very quickly.

[Rof L Mao Esq]

Exactly.

Some decades later I can still remember the day my dad removed the training wheels from my first bike and pushed me off up the street and into a whole new world! I was so proud, but I guess he was even more so.

My dad also taught me how to look after my bike, how to adjust the brakes, how to oil the chain and how to fix a puncture. I'm sure that there are mums who can teach these things but their kids will never experience that moment when levering the tyre off the wheel and dad says, "Don't tell your mother that we used her spoons!", then winks at you knowingly. Our secret!

We've just had a gloriously sunny Fathers' Day weekend in Australia and it was great to see more Dads than usual out with their kids riding their bikes in the parks.

Great comments from everyone, and especially this last from Australia. For me, every appearance in public with my children is, along with the pure pleasure in itself, a declaration of victory after the road I and others in my family have traveled to make them possible.

I didn't expect a walk down Memory Lane from this thread, and am unexpectedly pleased. Let's hope it continues.

I may be busy for a few days and unable to post much, but I'm with you all in spirit.

[Douglas]

Too busy to teach your child to ride a bike? Outsource it! - TODAYMoms

How about instead:

Today's Moms - Too busy to teach your child to ride a bike? Get out to work more and let Dad raise the children.

[KellyMac]

I don't remember who taught me how to ride, but it was probably my dad. My mom wasn't a patient woman.

I think my ex and I both taught Stormy to ride. I remember running behind a bike and letting go. Memory loss is a side effect of depression.

Conor never did learn how. He was born by emergency c-section as the cord was wrapped twice around his neck and his hear stopped every time I had a contraction. He's perfectly fine intellectually - at the top of his class. But he is hyper-emotional, and I will always wonder if that's why. He's been tested for Asperger's (a high-functioning form of autism) three times. They say autistic kids freak out when both feet are off the ground. He just couldn't do it.

[outdoors]

I remember learning to ride. Up a hill,got on,was given a push and it was iether ride or crash. Didn't take long to learn to ride.

Then we got new bike's a couple year's later,three speed banana bikes,we as kid's loved them.

My dad decided to take one for a ride down the road in front of our house. I don't know if members here are familiar with the banana bike style,they had a big wide tire at the back and a small tire on the front.

My dad got going at a pretty fast pace,he didn't know about handbrake's back then,he learned pretty quik not to squeeze the front brake handle after hitting some soft gravel. He spent the rest of the afternoon at the hospital getting stones and sand plucked from his hand's,forearm's and elbow's. The next day,he took the gear's off our new bike's and put on regular tire's.

My brother and I were pretty upset that he would modify our brand new three-speed's back down to one gear and a normal braking system but he said the bike's were to dangerous for us. lol

Just a couple week's ago,my daughter was given' a ten speed bike with the old style tall tire's and no cross bar(they used to be called a girl's bike).

Of course after she had it a couple of day's,I thought I would go for a ride.I didn't get far when a big snapping turtle was in the middle of the road. I thought to myself,how cool,great big snapper in the middle of the driveway.so I turned around and raced to get my daughter so I could show her the turtle.

To fast,to little,to late,when I got back to the house I thought i would just do like I did when i was a kid and lift my one leg over the seat and drift in close to the door.

I never realized how high the back tire was,of course it could have been my age,but for the life of me that leg would not go over the seat or back fender.

I think I ended up doing a triple somersault with the bike coming with me. No cut's or bruises but I could barely walk for about three day's and was embarrassed a shit when anyone asked why I was so sore. F'n turtle anyways!049.jpg


It's not just kid's that need to learn how ride a bike,everyone needs to refresh themself once in a while.

[Rof L Mao Esq]

For the precious little I have done in my son's life, I did help him be rid of his training wheels. He had been staying with me for a few days back when he was about six. He always hated that time but at that age he tried to show respect for what I was trying to do (before his mother replaced me with a new husband), and one day he announced he wanted to try and ride on two wheels on the bike I'd bought him for our time together.

So I took the trainers off, and told him the key was to keep his head and torso in the middle because the weight of his upper body was how one kept one's balance. It took him just a few minutes, and he had it, even on a rough gravel driveway. He spent the rest of the day riding around and working on his starts from a dead stop (much harder for some kids than two-wheel riding, I've found).

By the end of the day he almost had it, and was helping the little girl his age across the driveway learn to ride her bike. When her grandpa saw that she was ready he came out and took off her trainers, and soon the two kids were riding together.

My absence in his childhood is a loss I can never repay, but we did manage that together.

[wh666]

Fathers are essential to child rearing as much as a mother is.

From a scientific stance; mothers often develop the emotional aspect of a child, while the father primarily develops the logic and reasoning. Despite what crazy feminists say, both parents are needed for a well balanced child.

Fathers also push boundaries for a child and teach them how to be self sufficient. The following, is a good documentary which is easy to follow:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B31Q...UlE/edit?pli=1

[nivek]

Outdoors: I don't know if members here are familiar with the banana bike style,they had a big wide tire at the back and a small tire on the front.

Sounds like the chopper:

chopper_bike.JPG


My older brother had one of these, I had the smaller version, the tomahawk:

tomahawk1.jpg


Aaaaaahhhhhh great memories

[FloatyBoaty]

This raises enough red flags to kill somebody.

[paul parmenter]

I can't believe the article. How can it possibly be that a modern, superior, multi-tasking superwoman, empowered and independent, the very epitome of the finest development of the human race and most certainly in no need whatsoever of any mere male, cannot find either the time or the ability to teach her own child how to ride a bike, and has to resort to an inferior man to do it for her?

I need to lie down somewhere quiet with a cold towel round my head, to work this out...