Lessons from bikes

1. Wise moms often say in the midst of the challenging side of potty-training: They'll get it!  Kids don't wear diapers to kindergarten!  This advice can be generally applied to many areas of training - sleeping through the night, learning to swim, reading, riding a bike without training wheels.  Every kid is on their own time table, and more often than not, we parents feel the pressure to achieve these milestones, not them.  When our kids do feel the pressure?  They don't need parents with robust fix-the-problem plans to get them looking like their peers; rather, they need steady offers of support right where they are, a little help as they themselves set goals for where they want to be.

2.  Parents don't always know what they are doing.  I have taught three boys how to ride without training wheels, but to be honest (maybe don't tell them?), I don't have a method.  Just a lot of hunched over holding on and running beside them, speaking encouragement to them, telling them I know that they can do it, picking them up, fixing their bikes, taking breaks, trying again.  But being there, believing that they are capable, celebrating the little advances - I am so thankful to have that memory with each of them.  Even if my back was sore and we ran out of bandaids.

3.  Even if your children have asked you forty times in two days to go for a bike ride, when the schedule and weather finally cooperate and you happily say, Who wants to go for a bike ride?, the response won't be what you imagined.  Make them go anyway.  Boys + full body movement = happy times, no matter the starting attitude.

4.  It is impossible to keep an early-riser awake on a bike ride.  Sleepy heads bob extra with heavy helmets.