Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
SilverySurfer · 03/05/2018 18:19

I was 38 before I rode a bike. My neighbour wheeled me round the streets holding on to the seat until i learned to wobble around by myself Grin

saucepot8 · 03/05/2018 18:22

We had to force ds1 with chocolate as a reward to learn to ride a bike. He has dyspraxia and asd so found it really hard. Now he's 13 it is one of the few things he will do to exercise. Again ds2 has to be made to learn to ride without stabilisers. He is 11 and rides 10k with dh.
I think it's one of the things that you should do as a parent.

Original poster
upsideup · 03/05/2018 18:25

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

God! I'm not appalled and I dont think they're terrible parents at all, actually I know they are both really good parents. (but DS finds spelling really difficult, judge me if you like)
Its seems its pretty common, I was only asking if bike riding just wasnt a thing like it used to be and if it wasnt considered a common skill anymore.

OP posts:
Leeds2 · 03/05/2018 18:26

My DD, now 20, learned at age 7. Her friend's dad taught her, and I will be forever grateful!
I think probably more children use their scooters these days. And, also, many parents worry about letting their children use bikes due to them being out of range (unless on a family bike ride), or road safety. I do understand this, but am at the same time glad that DD can ride a bike should she ever need to do so in the future. I suspect it is one of those life skills that is on the decline.

That1950sMum · 03/05/2018 18:26

My DD is 12 and can't ride a bike. She always found it really tricky to master and in the end just decided it wasn't for her. My DS on the other hand loves his bike and goes everywhere on it.

I don't understand why you're shocked. It is possible to lead a normal life without riding a bike you know.

MsHomeSlice · 03/05/2018 18:27

they must be just terrible parents then...plenty of money, storage space and STILL no bike for the child

speakout · 03/05/2018 18:27

Not a "skill" I would encourage.

Both my kids could ride bikes by 7/8 but I actively discouraged them from cycling.

Gwenhwyfar · 03/05/2018 18:28

I couldn't ride a bike at the same age, learnt a bit later. I never did cycling proficiency either.

BeyondThePage · 03/05/2018 18:29

Learning to swim - yes I understand, safety, necessary life skill etc.

Riding a bike - who wants to ride a bike on our city roads, crap safety wise and breathing in fumes all the time. Not really a necessary life skill.

Zintox · 03/05/2018 18:31

My dd is 8 and autistic. She has terrible balance and coordination and can't master anything wheeled not even a three wheel scooter. We haven't even tried to teach her to ride a bike. While it's nice it's not an essential life skill and she can learn later if she is prepared to put the effort in.

Gwenhwyfar · 03/05/2018 18:31

"I don't understand why you're shocked. It is possible to lead a normal life without riding a bike you know."

I think you miss out though. I won't cycle in town and don't have a bike at the moment, but being able to join in a leisurely cycle in the countryside when on holiday is good and it can be useful in many circumstances.
I'm quite bitter I never got to do cycling proficiency.

MumofBoysx2 · 03/05/2018 18:31

One of ours was 8 by the time he learned without stabilisers, they'll probably be whizzing about this time next year!

Gwenhwyfar · 03/05/2018 18:33

Beyond - when you look at stats from ship disasters it's not necessarily the swimmers who survive.
I agree that cycling can be dangerous, but it's good if you have access to a cycle path.

LondonJax · 03/05/2018 18:34

Another one with an 11 year old who has just started to learn to ride. He has hypermobility in the ankles and shoulders so, until now, found it really hard work to hold a bike steady. Physio is helping with that so he's just getting onto a bike. Doesn't like it much so I have a feeling it's not going to be wonderful like I found it when I got my first bike but there you go!

paranoiamumma · 03/05/2018 18:34

My 6 year old has a bike but has no confidence to do it , he had an injury last year where he snapped a bone in his upper arm and had to have an op , and every time he try's to ride he panics he's going to do it again. ( he wasn't even riding a bike the first time ). I am hoping one day he will just get it with perseverance.

PinkCalluna · 03/05/2018 18:34

I think it may depend where you live. Cycling is really popular where we live.

So many kids ride their bikes to school that they recently had to install and additional bike rack.

We live somewhere with low crime, safe, quiet roads and no population though.

WomaninGreen · 03/05/2018 18:35

interesting thread

me and my sis feel hugely self conscious for never having learned

we grew up in London and our folks did offer but said effectively we'd only ever be able to ride a little up and down the pavement and it seemed totally pointless

then later in life I wished I'd learned, now I don't care. But...that is partly because I've had a couple of nasty accidents out running so quite what might happen to clumsy me if I tried biking on a trail, I really don't know.

I do think both sis and I might have dyspraxia but others have said if you can drive and dance, then you don't have it, but are just a bit clumsy at things?

anyway, I don't know if it's normal now or not but in London I see a lot of classes for adults to learn to ride a bike, so clearly there's more of us than i thought....

Flyingpompom · 03/05/2018 18:38

@speakout Why would you discourage children from bike riding?

Tashalburrows · 03/05/2018 18:41

My dd is ten and is just learning. She has no interest in a bike would rather be on top of a pony. She's had bikeabilty at school this week so has had to give it a go. I must admit I did chuckle watching her wobble round the playground this morning knowing she can jump a 500kg animal but wobbles on a straight line on a bike. She's come back tonight much better at it but no more interested x

DuchyDuke · 03/05/2018 18:41

Parents usually wait for Bikeability to teach them now. Not sure what age that happens everywhere, but in my town it’s Year 7 so 11/12.

BeyondThePage · 03/05/2018 18:42

Gwenhwyfar

not necessarily for safety on a boat though - falling in the canal, being able to right yourself in a pond, being swept off your feet at the seaside.. etc.

Pythonesque · 03/05/2018 18:44

I think I was in yr 11, possibly end of yr 10, when we did a few weeks cycling for PE at school. Non-UK city. At least 3 or 4 in a year of 70 hadn't learned to ride a bike (late 80s), which made this their chance to learn. I realised on the first day that it was the first time I'd been on a bike since I'd broken my arm at a cycling camp in year 7. (didn't actually bother me but was an interesting realisation).

Where we were, when you were little you could learn to ride a bike on the pavement, but it wasn't safe to ride on the roads so it was something most of us only did now and then. When I was in my 20s, still at home, I suggested cycling to my hospital placements (public transport route awkward) and my parents said no, they'd much rather drive me than let me cycle it because the relevant roads were so dangerous.

I am very pleased to be living in a city where we can ride routinely, but I don't take the opportunity for granted! (I have in fact taken a bicycle on a coach into London a couple of times, but only because there was a very safe route from the coach stop to where I needed to get to!)

speakout · 03/05/2018 18:45

We live somewhere with low crime, safe, quiet roads and no population though.

Similar to the area that I have brought my kids in.
Rural, winding roads with high hedges, poor visibility, no pavement. Young farmers "knowing" the road and screeching around in 4X4s at breakneck speed.
Alternatively a class A Road carrying 8000 vehicles- many of them heavy goods lorries passing through the village a day.

Neither option safe.

I discourage my kids from cycling in the same way I would try not to stimulate an interest in motorbikes.

Crunched · 03/05/2018 18:46

Similar to @speakout, I discouraged my DC from learning to ride a bike. My elder DS had a dreadful accident when she rode a bike and so my parents never let me sit on one. I had the best scooter in the area though.Grin
My DH was keen the DC learnt, but it was not something I got involved with.

Talith · 03/05/2018 18:49

My kids could from the age of around 7 or 8 but it's taken quite a lot of effort to get them up and running. The roads around here are a bloody nightmare so it's something they can only do at the park which isn't particularly close. They couldn't just go out front and do it. Had my XH not been a massive cycle nut I'm not sure I would have got around to it, so I'm grateful to him for that.