Make 9 year old learn to ride a bike?

Wonderful news! Well done!

Yes well done OP. It sounds like it was hard work and a faff but you’ve opened his world up just a little bit more by doing it.

Exactly this. Mine has just learned to cycle this week. Advice was to go from a balance bike to pedals. No stabilisers. We got a lightweight aluminium frame pedal bike secondhand and he is flying it now. A lightweight bike is fairly crucial for learners. I wanted him to be able to keep up with his peers and he is so proud of himself.

Well done OP! He now has a skill he can choose to use or not as an adult. That’s good parenting!

You sound like one of those people saying, ‘school is pointless as you don’t use half the stuff as an adult’. The point is that you don’t know what you will use or need in adult life, so why not build the foundations as a child to increase your choices later on.

Because the child might want to one day! They could end up with a group of friends who like cycling holidays, or attend a university where cycling makes life easier. Why limit your child when you can help them?!

Yes agree. If you have the means to, why not teach your kids if they are able to learn. They might need the skill one day, and it’s easier to learn when young.

You don’t have to ride a bike. But why not teach the skill in case it’s needed? My kids learned at 4/5 and didn’t ride much after then at all. But they really needed them at university and it was such an advantage.

Most citys habe cycle paths? safer than the Country side IMO

Yup definitely a difference between water safe and not. Most of the drownings in my country are due to people not being water safe, thanks to alcohol. The typical drownee is a middle aged or older man, who is drunk, and decides to go out on a boat on the lake, without a life jacket of course. Then perhaps needs a piss and stupidly stands up in a small boat to wee off the side and falls in, then either cold water shock or too drunk to climb back in the boat.
The newer type of death is sadly immigrants who didn't learn to swim in their home countries but want to join in normal summer activities here which tend to centre around water. But thankfully efforts are being made to teach them with adult swimming lessons (not something traditionally needed here as everyone learnt as a child)

Oh I am glad you found a way!

Yeah, it’s a bit like saying people who can drive are more likely to crash a car and people who can walk are more likely to trip, and people who can eat are more likely to choke. There is an element of risk associated with swimming.

However, there is a huge difference between “people who can swim” and people who are truly water safe. I definitely think many people can swim and overestimate their ability, but water safe people can swim, but understand how to take precautions. I’m a former swimming teacher and a very strong swimmer. I once saved someone’s life in the ocean. But I still wear a life jacket on our canoe trips and would never swim alone. I know about cold water shock and float to live. Everyone who can swim should also be water safe, and understand their limitations.

Does he want to ride a bike?
By 9 if they wanted to most would already be able to do so.

I suppose swimmers are more likely to actually go swimming* so more risk of drowning just from more opportunity, but if you pushed both a swimmer and a non-swimmer off a pier, the non-swimmer is more likely to drown.

*also more likely to do stupid risky things when swimming like when I decided to move a rock out of the way from where people jump in the lake from the swimming jetty. I didn't want anyone to hit their head on the rock (kids dive) so I dived down and picked up the rock to move it and obviously it was too heavy for me to actually swim back up to the surface with, and it took me a worryingly long time to realise I should let go of the rock and go breathe! I did manage to toss it to the side so it was less in the way, but I didn't try moving rocks underwater again!

To be fair I'm only confident of my ability to swim in a pool. No idea how well I'd swim if I fell of a boat.

Just googled it, some studies seem to show swimmers more likely to drown and some saying it's non swimmers.

I read somewhere, can't remember where, that you're more likely to drown if you can swim. I have no idea if it's true but I imagine it's to do with overconfidence if it is true.

Fair enough.

I don’t think so but she always regretted not learning, so took some lessons.

Id have had a bloody long walk to school if I didn't have a bike.

I didn’t realise that - I thought it was something that was easier as a child.

I don’t have great coordination so that might have been the issue - I could do the movements but didn’t go anywhere! Same with driving - I could operate a car but couldn’t cope with reacting to traffic etc.

I’m ND and my brain overanalyses things so rather than just react I think about things - my driving instructor very kindly explained that that was why I was probably never going to get through the test 🤣

Fair enough, it’s been useful for your lifestyle so of course you are very pro.

I guess a lot of it is lifestyle or location based (although I did spend the day on a canal boat once - luckily I didn’t fall in 🤣)

I don’t have kids and don’t go on holiday so it’s never actually come up (school residentials weren’t a thing when I was there - they took us camping in Wales and pretty much left us to it 🤣)

or course people get by without knowing how to ride a bike and some people physically can’t but not people able to do so does limit opportunities. Why would you knowingly do that if you don’t have to.

@Anarchy99 I can think of lots of things I've been able to try and mostly enjoyed, some of which became long term hobbies, which are enabled by being able to swim. e.g. sea kayaking; paddleboarding on lakes, rivers and the sea; river and ocean rowing; white water rafting; helping my kids learn to swim; lane swimming with my husband; swimming in the sea with my family on our holidays; swimming in the sea with my friends on beach days; taking part in swimming galas whilst at school; being able to do all the activities on my school's residential instead of sitting on the sidelines; going to pool parties as a kid; snorkelling; body-boarding with my kids; having surfing lessons.

I realise many of these things cost money, require being reasonably able-bodied, and I'm lucky to have be able to access many of these activities. Being open to trying new things (not exclusively water-based), and being able to try new things, is, I think, a normal life experience. If someone is able to swim, the subset of new things which require a basic competence in swimming, e.g. all manner of watersports, are opened up to them to try. I also work in an industry where team days / events are a fairly normal thing, and they not infrequently involve getting into a wetsuit somewhere along the way. If I couldn't swim, I'd have been sitting on the sidelines of these events, or not turning up at all.

Is swimming an essential life skill? No, and I don't think I've ever claimed it is (though I appreciate others on this thread have). Is it a useful enabler of further opportunities? Yes, and I would have missed out on some useful opportunities and many very enjoyable opportunities if I couldn't swim. There are good substitutes for many of those opportunities (loads of other sports / activities / hobbies and pastimes), but not all, e.g. directly being involved in helping my kids become good swimmers, and being able to network at corporate team days which unfortunately aren't always designed to be inclusive.