Ditching babyhood bit by bit

Today my youngest son ditched the trainer wheels on his bike. He described it as being more exciting than Thrift Shop!

This is the third Sunday afternoon in a row that we've wandered down to a flat play area adjacent to the waterway near our house. You can see a portion of it on the right of this photo. It is a fairly bleak area with some old playground equipment, but most importantly a flat gravelled area. Perfect for learning to ride your bike:  a touch softer than bitumen and no traffic (only soccer balls and baseballs whizzing around).

He is still randomly wobbly, so a bit too dangerous for riding on narrow roads and pathways, but still, those training wheels will not be going back on.

It was pretty easy, compared to his brothers' progression to a two-wheeled bike. His oldest brother was in Australia during his 5th year. We returned to Japan just after his 6th birthday, so he was a little older. I ran behind him many times. And had many an argument with him too. He lacks confidence in trying new skills and tends to give up before he's had enough of a chance to learn. He also argues like a lawyer. His is the only perspective.

Our middle son, however, was by far the worst. Early on in his training-wheel days I took him on a trip to the shop (with our baby on the back of my bike). I chose a bad route home as I didn't realise how little he understood about stopping. He ran out-of-control down a short slope and narrowly missed a parked car. The consequences of that little adventure was that he wouldn't even touch a bike for months or was it longer? He was well into his 6th year before he would condescend to even ride WITH trainer wheels. You can understand we didn't push him too hard to move onto two wheels. He hates to be out of control. He over-reacts. He is our spirited child who is just "More". More intense, More perceptive, More persistent, has Bigger reactions and is More reluctant to enter into new experiences than most kids. We got More than we bargained for when this one was born!

So, our third son's gentle entry into the world of two-wheeled bicycles has been quite an understated and wonderful experience by comparison. Now he also might have more of a chance to keep up with his speedy cycling brothers!