Make 9 year old learn to ride a bike?

"Once they realise the danger" is not applicable to small children though, so it keeps them safer if they at least know how to doggy paddle/float.
Riding a bike is not a survival skill in the same way. Although both are fun for children to do.

I think what's really frustrated me about bikes is that if you go back a few generations learning to ride a bike represented freedom. It meant you could bike to a friend's house or go on a local outing with friends. Now the age at which we let kids do these things just keeps going up.

If you want your kids to ride a bike it's yet another thing that parents have to facilitate by finding safe places to do so, transporting the bikes by car etc.

Maybe not an essential skill but definitely a useful one. Imagine group of kids going out on bikes and yours is the only one who can't ride. There was a boy like that in my brother's group of mates. He missed out on so much as well as being taken the piss out of

What does he want? Does he want to learn to ride a bike? If he wants to learn 100% go for it, if he doesn't he will get through life without knowing how to ride a bike. My parents never even got me a balance bike, then got me a big bike at 10 and tried to force me to learn, they was less than impressed that I didn't learn and to this day I don't know how to ride a bike. It's not essential.

The comments about life skills are giving me a chuckle. It's a life skill in the same way swimming or driving a car later. Not necessarily needed. Non swimmers tend to not put themselves in danger once they realise the danger. Car driving, well we all know rosks, far more dangerous for a 17 yr old but still encouraged particularly on MN. Riding a bike gives kids a little more independence, as a child I spent a lot of time out with friends riding bikes, they were part of our games, as I git older, went to clubs and cycled the 9 miles to school because I preferred it to sitting on a bus. I guess depending on area, traffic would be a concern, round here there's a lot of cycle lanes which help. Im considering getting a pedal assist ebike ( legal) ti get to work. The car traffic is so slow its so congested. So to answer I would encourage it but you need to model it by getting out yourself. Ps..sorry for typos, for some reason I can't edit once I've written without deleting back to mistake!

It is essential if you don’t have a car or can’t drive.
I am passionate about cycling. I have 3 different bikes and eyeing up another one.
My sons are keen cyclists, one loves gravel, the other mountain. Dh is not.

Personnly I dont think it's an essential skill.
I think it's a good skill to have though.
I have several friends who live by themselves and dont drive and dont / cant ride a bike.
They manage to get to work, one works 23 miles away and does shifts up until 10pm.
Uber, walking and trains are their modes if transport.

It wasn’t for the 30 odd years I didn’t have a car. It’s not for all the pensioners who have to give up driving. Just accept it’s not essential and I’ll stop posting.

There are two things to cycling: balance and pedalling. Use a balance bike or a normal bike with pedals off. Learn to push and balance. Once balance is properly learnt (ie balancing for a long old while), introduce the pedalling.

With my kids I found getting them to go down a slight slope helped them get up the momentum needed to balance while they started to pedal. Luckily there was one in the park behind our house, which also had that soft, rubbery surfacing that is so useful if things do go wrong.

I'm 57 and never learned to ride a bike. Don't want to. I'm very active in lots of other ways.

That’s probably a reflection on the lack of cycle routes in many areas.

But - as is currently happening in London and Paris - build it [safe cycle routes] and they will come…

How as a blanket statement?

I didnt drive or have a car until my mid 30s and we moved out of London so needed to drive.

Yes I think that is probably quite likely. Choose not to or don’t have the opportunity day to day for whatever reason, or both.

Same article says 72% of adults have access to a household car and can drive but only 37% of adults own a bike, so that suggests to me that a very large portion could cycle but choose not to.

Would have been better when he was younger but 9 is better than 12, 15 or never.

In my eyes, riding a bike is like learning to swim or how to tie your shoe laces. It just opens up more opportunities and makes life easier.

Agree with others that swimming is more important than cycling, for safety reasons.

My child's school does a cycling programme for year 5's every year, so it's worth checking if your child will be expected to do anything like that through school. If so I'd want them to learn to avoid being embarrassed in front of their peers.

It is essential if you don’t have a car or can’t drive.

Does he want to?

I can’t ride a bike. My co-ordination and balance are…. off! Plus I’m not bothered enough to keep try. I’ve never felt particularly disadvantaged.

Buy him a bike.
String a rope three feet up, down your garden,
Remove the tyres from the bike and he can ride the bike along the rope in the garden.

I saw this in a circus, and it was great.

So it’s not essential. I was hoping we’d get there eventually.

So a very quick google brings up this article suggesting 92% of UK adults can ride a bike vs 75% who can drive. No idea how reliable that source is but just anecdotally that seems realistic to me.

Whether we use the word essential or not, it’s clearly a skill you can safely assume most people you meet will have.

It is certainly always preferable to have any skill than not to, and this is a particularly easy one to tick off the list in childhood, so unless there are major barriers I don’t see why you wouldn’t.

More people can cycle than drive

My grandson loves his bike and cycling around the park with his friends. It's a feeling of freedom you don't get when you have feet on then ground. Where do his friends cycle? When he sees them, he'll want to do it. You'll need to buy a cycle rack. Thinking about it, buy a cycle yourself. I'm 73 and still love to get out on 2 wheels. You can enjoy rides together.

I think if you have a place to keep a bike and a place to ride it, it’s nice for your kids to know how to do it. But if you have neither or it’s logistically complicated then it’s fine. Your child can learn later on if it becomes important. I don’t think it’s something to feel guilty about if you can’t make it work. Loads of people around me wouldn’t have anywhere to keep a bike or anywhere to ride it so there’s no reason to stress about it.

Then I’ll pose the question to which nobody has an answer once more: if it’s an essential skill, how is it that a significant section of the population manages to navigate life successfully without it? Riding a bike wouldn’t have helped me when I was doing a 100 mile round trip commute, driving certainly did.

I think it’s an essential skill. Both my adult DDs and my DH use a bike for commuting. Most teenagers I know cycle to school. Mine did. I think it’s much more essential than learning to drive.

I'd definitely teach him to ride soon somehow, whether you borrow a bike or buy one. How about a second hand bike rack for the car? I didn't learn as a child because my parents thought it unsafe (think they probably couldn't afford a bike) and then as a teenager I was too embarrassed to try in public or with stabilizers because 'everyone can ride a bike, eye roll'. When my husband took the kids cycling I tried briefly as an adult but couldn't get my balance and was a bit of a wuss. Now at my age I'd break something. But it held us back on holidays etc I've always wished I could ride.