F*** TRAINING WHEELS!!
Do we molly-coddle our children? Do we
force them to learn with crutches when they should just dive-in? It is natural to hover over our
children. They go in water with
floatation devices on their arms before they learn to swim. They work their way up from a tricycle to a
bicycle with training wheels before they learn to ride a two-wheeler. In our desire to teach our children to do
things incrementally, are we actually retarding their development?
How do they
know if they can swim if they don’t lose the “swimmies?” Training wheels never trained a child to ride
a two-wheeler.
Our children
are capable of doing far more than we give them credit. Sometimes we have to hold our breath and just
let them go.
Grandson Cole age Four years and Three days
(Background toddler noise is Connor, not ready to ride yet.)
Cole got a
new bike for his 4th birthday.
He wanted to try riding without the training wheels. One push and he was
good to go.
F***
Training Wheels!
And training bras, too.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the moddlycoddling. Today we tend to overthink EVERYTHING!
S
He's good until he trades up to four wheel in twelve or thirteen years.
ReplyDeleteAs always, a great read. I bought your book a little while back and Amazon just informed me that it will be arriving soon. I am waiting with 'bated breath!
ReplyDeleteMy four year old great niece has so much gear 'safety' gear on her when she hits the swimming pool, I'm afraid she'll drown!
ReplyDeleteGOOD FOR HIM!!
ReplyDeleteNever used training wheels for our boy. When he saw how te big boys were riding he just picked up a two wheeler ad started riding. He dd fall a few times but nothing bad. I'm syre his mother had a more elaborate version of how this went down.
ReplyDeleteI never had training wheels as a kid, in fact I think it would have just slowed down my learning to ride.
ReplyDeleteAwesome and AMEN we coddle our kids way to much today. I saw a little girl the other day that had on so much gear to ride her bike the poor thing could not bend her knees to peddle the damn bike!
ReplyDeleteYay for Cole!
ReplyDeleteWe don't do training wheels here, either. When they are ready to ride a two-wheeler, we just get them up on one...hold onto the seat, running alongside them...then we let go. They go for a bit, then they eventually turn to see we are not holding on the seat anymore, then promptly freak out and crash. Happens every time. Then before the betrayal tears start, we say "but BEFORE you noticed we weren't holding on anymore, you were doing it by yourself!!! By yourself!!!" then that thought sinks into their brain, they smile, and the next thing we know, they are riding a bike solo. Crashing a few times at first is a part of it. Just keep a helmet on them to protect that brain; every other body part is fixable!
Well done to Cole.
ReplyDelete