Competition suits Kouryou-chan just fine

[elfs]

Bicycle!

So, check this out. The little girl next door just had her birthday party and she turned seven, and one of the things she decided to do after turning seven was learn to ride a bicycle without training wheels.

Well, Kouryou-chan, who's going to turn eight very soon, couldn't possibly let this challenge go by. So this afternoon she comes to me and says, "Daddy, could you take the training wheels off my bike?" After getting her assurance that it's what she wants, I indeed take the wheels off her bike. And it's just like magic: she gets on and after two or three false starts she begins to ride. She keeps veering left and driving right into the grass of the back yard. But she's getting it. Fifteen minutes later she's mastered the turn, and her balance, and almost has the brakes down perfect. An hour after taking them off, we're riding around the neighborhood.

Omaha and I could not be happier. For us, as kids, the bicycle was our tickets to freedom and independence, our route to getting out of the house on a regular basis.

Now if only we could get Yamaraashi-chan to do the same thing...

Comments

[lionman.livejournal.com]

Pretty amazing stuff, isn't it? :-)

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

I still remember when I first had the training wheels removed from my bike; I didn't have any problem with a straight line, but didn't have a clue about leaning into a turn, and of course went straight over to the outside the first time I tried to turn around. Then, the second time, thinking "If I fell out when I tried to turn, I should lean in", I overdid it and fell to the inside. The third time, I managed to make it without falling over, although it took me some more tries to get the amount of lean down; the first few were a little wobbly in one direction or the other.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

Now that the one is riding without the training wheels, the other might too, just like with the 'peer pressure' of the neighbor girl. Or she might just be more reassured by her sister riding than her parents trying to get her to ride. After my parents tried for months to get my brother, and then my sister, to let them take the training wheels off, I was the one who ended up teaching each of them.