Teaching Kids to Bike

“I am afraid that I missed the window in teaching my child to bike.”

Parental Expectations and Realities

Recently, a mother expressed this very real feeling she had about her son’s inability to bike at a certain age. As a parent, I feel that everyday. There is a finite amount of time in the day. Almost every decision a parent makes is kind of a catastrophe waiting to happen. I want my child to bike, so I try to teach them. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t work. Either way, parents own the outcome. However, it has been my experience that parents are often blind to their successes. I try to remind parents of that when they express feelings of failure by letting them know that simply having signed your child up to a lesson proves that they are invested in the development of their child. This conscious effort to create an environment which fosters and promotes development for their child, is far more important than being good at teaching any particular thing, like riding a bike.

Addressing Parental Concerns: “Am I Too Late?”

Returning to the question that the mother asked, “Am I too Late?” The answer is simply no. I have yet to meet a person who could not learn to bike with some rare exceptions. More importantly, I think the real question that the mother was asking is “can you help me continue to do all I can to help my child thrive?” This reframes the experience of learning as a conscious effort by the parents to expose their children to an environment which will enable their evolution through a process which creates failures and then helps guide them to success.

The Role of External Support in Parenting

Being a parent is a hard job. There are a lot of expectations that we have for ourselves or are put upon us. Getting someone to help your child learn a particular thing well shows wisdom. Within it lies the understanding that if parents create the environment which allows for development and others teach the skills, their child will thrive. We can’t ever really predict the outcome. All we can do is our best to create the right environment.

Pete Conway

Be awesome like a pirate.