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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be shocked at this?

278 replies

upsideup · 03/05/2018 17:47

DS1 has two friends round for dinner tonight, ones 8 and ones 9 and they have gone outside to play with bikes/scooters etc and both of his friends dont own a bike and have never been taught to ride one before and its not just them they all mentioned several other friends who cant as well.
I thought riding a bike was a still a pretty normal skill that all children had learnt to do by now.

AIBU to be shocked at this? Do most 8/9 year olds not know how to ride a bike?

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 03/05/2018 17:52

Plenty don't know how to ride a bike. They don't have the money to buy bikes or store them, don't live in places where you can safely learn, have dyspraxia or a similar condition that makes it hard to learn.

FlibbertyGiblets · 03/05/2018 17:54

^
What expat said.

TryingToForgeAnewLife · 03/05/2018 17:56

Ds14 can't ride a bike. Ds211 can

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 03/05/2018 17:56

Mine both learnt at 9, just couldn’t get it before then.

Do you have to be so mean?

TheHulksPurplePanties · 03/05/2018 17:56

Scooters are the norm now. I barely know any kids with bikes.

Funnyface1 · 03/05/2018 17:58

My ds is 7 and is all about scooting, very rare he wants to go on his bike. Tried to encourage him but he's just not interested yet so I leave him be.

jugglingsatsumas · 03/05/2018 17:58

My 8 year old can't ride a bike. We li e on a busy road, in a flat with no garden. It's hard to find somewhere to practise.

positivepixie · 03/05/2018 18:00

YABU and I think there are many more shocking things to be shocked about! Mine have bikes but we haven't cracked the solo cycling yet - mainly because we do loads of other activities (swimming, footy, karate, hiking) and haven't had time to focus on it yet. I'm sure your visitors can do things that your kids can't but whose counting...Hmm

Singlenotsingle · 03/05/2018 18:01

Parents won't let their children out to ride bikes now. Dangerous on the roads, plus everyone's scared of stranger danger so you can't let kids out without supervision

x2boys · 03/05/2018 18:02

ds only learnt last yr hes 11 he just couldn't get the hang of it before Hmm

Tink2007 · 03/05/2018 18:02

I don’t know how to ride a bike. I was useless at it no matter how many people tried to teach me.

Stick a pair of ice skates on me though and I was well away.

Original poster
upsideup · 03/05/2018 18:03

Both of them have the the space to store a bike and the money to buy one they live in the same area as us where there is loads of safe space to learn. They have no conditions that I am aware of, they've been playing for only half an hour and pretty much already have it.
Though I understand in those cases why kids wouldnt be able to.
Who was I being mean to? I was only asking if this is the norm as I was shocked by it

OP posts:
Graphista · 03/05/2018 18:04

Dd was 10 before she learnt. Hms affects her balance and movements so she couldn't manage till then.

Also depending where you live many can't afford bikes nor have anywhere safe to store them.

Cornettoninja · 03/05/2018 18:05

It's probably because not everyone has somewhere to actually ride one. I lived over the road from a park when I was young so could ride there but was never allowed on the pavements (rightly so imho).

Never did master roller skates though...

Barbie222 · 03/05/2018 18:05

The roads round here are too busy for children to ride. Bikes are expensive, and we dutifully bought bikes for our children only to see them being ridden round in tiny circles on the drive. Have you seen how people drive?!? For lots of children the messing about on bikes days are over, sadly, because if you have a family of more than 4 you can't get a rack to hold them all and drive off somewhere safer.

Graphista · 03/05/2018 18:07

My dd didn't have her diagnosis at the time. I just put it down to some people have better balance than others, she didn't. Once we had diagnosis a lot of things like this made more sense. She couldn't do roller skates either.

Plus people don't always advertise their kids disabilities/illnesses as well as not knowing themselves.

FlyingElbows · 03/05/2018 18:07

My youngest is almost 12 and has resolutely refused to learn to ride a bike. He simply doesn't want to.

swampytiggaa · 03/05/2018 18:10

My younger 3 can’t ride a bike. No coordination and frankly no interest to try to learn. My older 2 can but don’t. They walk everywhere instead.

pallisers · 03/05/2018 18:12

we didn't teach ours to ride a bike - we kind of forgot tbh. We taught the eldest and then it never came up with the younger two. We live in a very urban area. It isn't safe for them to ride on the streets as kids and it just wasn't a big thing. Also I am not fond of bike riding (dh is) We did all the other stuff - scooters, skating, swimming, etc.

Then when the middle one was in 8th grade she was heading off on a school trip that involved a bike trip and we realised - taught her and her sister in a few days. We've done some bike riding as a family since then.

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat · 03/05/2018 18:12

Op tell us something your child finds difficult and we’ll all act shocked and appalled and generally think you’re a terrible parent for not ensuring he can do it. Ready?

EvilEdna1 · 03/05/2018 18:13

I am 45 and can't ride a bike....has your head exploded with shock?

LunaTrap · 03/05/2018 18:16

My 9 yr old DS can't ride a bike. He has additional needs that we don't advertise. I'll just add this to the long list of things we are probably being judged for.

IvorHughJarrs · 03/05/2018 18:17

I think the world is changing and a lot of the older skills are not considered as important as they were. There has been something in the news today about teenagers losing spatial and map reading skills as they now use satnavs, last week it was teachers saying analogue clocks in exam halls should be replaced with digital as many cannot tell the time. My DCs are all adults but still can't do a lot of traditional things like sewing, fixing stuff, etc that DH and I learned as children as they never needed to learn before

DontCallMeCharlotte · 03/05/2018 18:17

I never had a bike as a kid but could always ride one and it didn't stop me doing the London to Brighton bike ride (on a borrowed one). DH (in his 50s) has never ridden a bike in his life.

expatinscotland · 03/05/2018 18:17

I haven't had a use for riding a bike in almost 40 years. DD2 has dyspraxia and hasn't learned or wanted to. DS is 9 and has autism and no desire to learn. Just as well, we live in a first-floor flat with no garden off a 40mph road without so much as a stop sign for miles.