Biker Boy

In keeping with the goal of my blog, if you are out there wondering why YOUR child isn't riding yet, this is just a reminder that EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT.  Some of my other children didn't ride until they were 10!   I remember feeling like such a failure.  I hope you don't.  If you can accept this difference, and/or if you want to know more about what happens when my child gets to feeling a little too independent, read on:

Henry (age barely 4) is in a new stage of life.   The biker boy stage.

He came home Monday night and announced, "Dad, I want my training wheels off."  We've tried to get his training wheels off unsuccessfully before.  So my internal, unspoken reaction was a sarcastic, "Yeah, right."  This will probably just be another trip to the garage tools.  

Nevertheless, we removed his training wheels.  Much to our surprise, minutes later, Henry was successfully riding up and down the driveway, turning, and crashing here and there without crying.  I was a little jealous of the turning.  I remember practicing hours and hours trying to turn.  

When Henry was about 2, we purchased a small bike kind of like this one that didn't have training wheels or even pedals.  He quickly learned to balance on it, and during the next year, I periodically could be found racing down the road in my flip flops, high heels, night gown, (you get the picture) trying to catch up with this tiny child who knew it was more fun to go down a long slightly sloping road than our driveway. 

When we got a larger bike, we had to leave on the training wheels because he was just too small to balance on it as he had his smaller bike.  We were surprised when we tried to remove the training wheels that he had forgotten how to balance.  

Clearly he's overcome that.

So reminiscent of old times (i.e. me frantically running down the road after the two-year-old), I got a phone call at 8 AM on the second day of Henry's biker boy stage from my neighbor several houses down the road.  I was switching laundry.  The phone call started like this:

Neighbor:  "Henry was just down here asking to play.  He rode his bike down."

Believe me, I wouldn't let my 4-year-old ride his bike down the street alone at 8 AM to bug my neighbor, who I know is trying to get children off to school.    I had no idea he was out of the house.  Some things you just simply can't control, unless you put hooks on your doors.  Sometimes I think that might be a good idea. 

I stuck my head out the front door to see Henry riding up the road, smiling and proud of his independence. 

(We did have a talk about the safety of riding down the road and our family rules, which include asking before leaving the yard.  But I still was charmed by his confidence.)