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Thursday, July 9, 2009
Teaching kids overdue skill not as easy as riding a bike
I was on vacation last week and spent it at one of my favorite places: Home.
Although it can be great to get away, I sometimes like it even better when I can relax a little in the comfort of my own little abode.
It is the only place I know of where I can sleep in and read back issues of People amid tufts of dog hair, ketchup-stained children and half-drunk glasses of milk, and not pay so much attention to the numbers on the clock.
After a few days of that, I even had the energy to attack some of the long-overdue projects that have been weighing down many-a Post-it for months, and others for years.
One such project my husband and I tackled last week, one that fell in the “years” category, was teaching our kids how to ride bikes.
Somehow, summer after summer and without me really noticing, my sons managed to get to the relatively ripe old ages of 8 and 10 without acquiring this seemingly basic kid skill.
My husband and I readily shoulder the blame for this oversight, but I must say the kids’ lack of interest played a role as well.
Even though my sons have always had bikes at their disposal, complete with age-appropriate training wheels, they rarely wanted to ride.
There was always a soccer ball, a baseball bat, a lacrosse stick or some other remote piece of sporting equipment that caught their eye first.
Sometimes I would off-handedly remind them that they were going to have to learn to ride someday, but I always expected their desire to kick in on its own like it did for me.
But it never happened, and I think it has a lot to do with how different a kid’s world is compared to 30 years ago.
When I was a kid, bikes were the main event. They topped our Christmas lists and were rarely far from reach in the summer.
My brother and I would spend hours riding all over the neighborhood with our friends — going to the store, visiting friends’ houses, flying off self-constructed mud hills behind the nearby creek and teaching ourselves how to “pop a wheelie.”
But, it isn’t like that these days. There is just much more parental supervision involved with kids this age — I should know.
My husband and I often debate about whether there are more dangers now than there were when we were kids, or if there is just more information available. I have seen the statistics spun both ways.
However, as a result of these real or perceived fears, you just don’t see kids riding around their neighborhoods like you used to.
But my husband and I still wanted the kids to learn how to ride bikes, and set out to do that last week.
And, let me tell you, it was no fun — for the kids or the adults. When we told the kids of our plans, the older one groaned, “Do we have to?”
Fortunately, this was immediately followed by the younger one (my new favorite) saying: “I want to learn.” (Whether he wanted to contradict his brother or save him remains to be seen.)
We took them to a park and started on the softer baseball diamond and then moved to an open parking lot.
My husband and I kept yelling, “Keep pedaling! Stay balanced! Don’t forget your brakes!” as we ran behind their bikes with a guiding hand. The kids did their part by falling, crying, picking themselves up and trying again.
And we made it. After about eight hours, nine Band-aids, two bruised bottoms and innumerable tears , the kids can, although shakily, ride their bikes.
Whether they will want to do it again, however, is still in question.
But at least they have the skills to ride if they choose to. And my husband and I can, at least tentatively, cross that big one off the list.
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