To think buying bikes for no good reason is spoiling.....

[Namedilema123]

3 year old twins have balance bikes they got for Christmas. Absolutely nothing wrong with them. Today DH took the twins to Halfords to get something for his bike. Has come home with 2 bikes for them. Im livid.

They are bikes with stabilizers. His reasons fir buying them are 1. They we're 'only' £40 each. 2. Balance bikes are crap and they need stabilizers. 3. 'you should have seen their faces, they loved them and were having so much fun'.

My reasons for being pissed are 1. It was only yesterday we were discussing how the twins might be getting a bit spoilt between grabdparents taking them on days out every single time they look after them and us and we all needed to change behaviour 2. Bikes (regardless of price) are big ticket items and should be for birthdays or Christmas...just walking into a bike shop and getting them because they liked them is spoiling them. 3. I would prefer them to learn on balance bikes and skip stabilizers alltogether but that's a much less important point. 4. He didnt even call to discuss with me first.

AIBU???

I think..Lucky you being 'pissed' at this time of day !
Seriously, I think £40 for a bike is super and shouldn't be sniffed at. Sure kids know how lucky they are. Sell the balance bikes and treat yourself !!

MuttsNutts the issue re the grandparents taking them out everytime they have them (and I don't mean to the park or to feed the ducks, I mean to farms, toddler Thorpe park equivalents, basically big days out etc), is that when i have them and my 6 week old baby and need to stay in, they expect to be entertained all the time. The park is no longer enough for them. Being at home is now boring for them and i end up with two 3 year olds who whinge all day about wanting to go swimming/go to the place with the big slides/go to trampoline parks and "being at home is boring". I cant do any of those things with them and a newborn. Of course going to nice places every so often is fine, but every week is too much in my opinion (and making my life with a newborn and trying to get jobs done with two toddlers very difficult).

So what do you do with your three year olds instead? Or what do you want your Parents to do with them?

My DD is in the same position, younger baby. I take my GD out, she does crafts etc at home. We are lucky to have really good parks, with sand pits in, locally, though.

Just to add, now they might want to go to somewhere just to ride their bikes.

But if you can’t do those things with a newborn, surely it is better for them to do them with willing grandparents instead and you can do the other at home stuff with them yourself. I don’t see why they shouldn’t be taken out to have fun in different places.

I'm 50, we all learnt to ride with stabilisers

Well I'm 40something with Nordic parents who viewed it as a personal insult to have a non-cycling child.

I did learn to ride with stabilizers. And at 10 yrs old that is still where I was, with stabilizers.

They never came off and now I am a non-cyclist.

If balance bikes stop that happening, I'm all for progress.

Seems like this is a good time for them to be out playing on bikes - nice weather, light evenings etc. Unless you usually have a policy of consulting with each other before all purchases and / or this is going to make money tight, I wouldn’t be too upset about it.

I think it's fine to buy children things, even if it's not their birthday or christmas or even if they don't need it- it's nice to get something you want from time to time.

However, buying bikes with stabilisers defeats the object of having balance bikes and is a step backwards in my opinion. You should be able to go straight to a pedal bike when they are a little older so the bikes might not be wasted as the stabilisers will come off.

Honestly it won't be the day trips making them bored at home and life difficult with 3yr old twins and a newborn... life with 3 yr old twins and a newborn is going to be difficult.

For this reason I'm going to say just let it go if you can afford it. It doesn't matter in the scheme of things. Make life easier for yourself by floating over it.

Bikes were never given as a gift in my house. In the same way as I wouldn't give them swimming lessons for Christmas.

I'd take the stabilisers off and get them riding this weekend though, if they've been on balance bikes it will take about 10 minutes each.

You are starting to sound rather churlish now. The grandparents are doing a lovely thing taking the twins out weekly to places you can't go at the moment and giving you space to be be with your baby. Even if they weren't taking them to such places and just taking them to the park or swimming your twins would probably still be bored, whiny and restless at home while you are caring for the baby.

Does seem daft if they aren't ready yet-hopefully the bikes are big enough to last!

Agree with no stabilizers though-that awful lurching feeling!

As long as they can put a foot down!

Idk part of me thinks why wouldn't you spoil your kids to an extent if you can?

Saw a young lad of about 3 yesterday out biking with his dad & it made me smile & remember teaching ours.

Mine are 20 & 22 now-it flies by!

Grandparents are entitled to do whatever they like with your children if they are looking after them for the day. Honestly it sounds really mean moaning about the fact they get nice days out with their grandparents, most people would be really happy with that.
Bikes don't have to be a big present if you can afford for it not to be. Every child should have a bike, it's essential for learning to balance and get out and enjoy the outdoors and keeping active.
I think your DH did a nice thing for his kids, a nice surprise that they will love. Don't spoil it for everyone.

I'd take the stabilisers off and get them riding this weekend though, if they've been on balance bikes it will take about 10 minutes each.

But they haven't mastered the balance bikes after 8 months. Taking the stabiliser off is unlikely to get them riding in 10 minutes. It is likely that the new loved bikes that they are now having fun with will go the same way as the balance bikes; unused and wasted. Not everything needs to be a learning experience; sometimes it is OK to just have fun for the sake of it!

Given they have had balance bikes, they probably won't need stabalizers. All of mine got onto normal bikes and cycled off into the distance aged around 3 as they had learned to ride on balance bikes.

The only thing I would say is that taking 3yo twins out on bikes for transport instead of for a ride around the park is likely to be a nightmare. 3yos can ride bikes but have very little road sense whatsoever. And you have 2 of them. I live in a town where everyone cycles. Many kids can ride bikes without stabalizers aged 3. My kids regularly cycled aged 3 to and from nursery. I would have been very cautious about doing that with two of them.
.

Missed that they hadn't mastered the balance bikes. Again this isn't somethin that should take long. get the grandparents onto doing that when they have them, even adding in this stage, it should still only take a few weeks. Do you have space for them using them indoors or outside where you can watch them?

Well I guess the kids will be upset if you returned the bikes. But i would have persevered with the balance bikes. Our DD had a balance bike and was 3yrs old when she rode a pedal bike on first attempt. Stabilisers don’t teach balance so it will take longer for them to learn to ride those bikes without stabilisers. Also those Halfords type of bikes are very heavy.

I would be annoyed too, they have perfectly good bikes that just need a bit of practice.

I think you have it a bit arse about face.

My parents take our DC out on trips we can’t afford. And often buy bigger ticket items. I see it as a bonus that I don’t have to spring the cash for it.

And if you crack down now about the whining, the kids will fully understand that going out on days out is a grandma thing and going to the park is a mummy thing. Just keep repeating it. Over and over. Yes, WE go to the park, GRANNY takes you to the zoo. You will see granny on Thursday etc.

The bikes, meh. I wouldn’t stress, unless it leaves you eating toast till payday. We are a biking houseold, bikes aren’t toys, they are transport. We have bought when we see a good deal rather than for birthday or Christmas. My only worry is that is a £40 actually a good deal? Many cheap bikes are a bit shit and will put inexperienced or beginner cyclists off by being too heavy to handle or brakes too hard to pull. Secondhand is often Better.

"But they haven't mastered the balance bikes after 8 months."

Maybe depends on how much time they've had on them?

We also found scooters good for balance.

YABU. If they were having fun in the shop. I presume they were actually riding the bikes.
So better for them than balance bikes they haven't mastered.
Our children have now grown up but when they were children I did buy stuff like bikes during the year.

based on the information supplied, YANBU, the key point being that they already have newish bikes, of a type that is better for learning on.

Well I read posts like this and I thank fuck I’m blissfully single so don’t have to call a summit meeting before I spend 80 quid. And as for a PP saying “I would want to have input into size, brand, price etc.” FFS. Dad has bought his kids two cheap bikes, that’s all. 🙄.

My dd didn't use balance bikes. She had stabilisers and we took them off 2 years ago and she rides great. She had a second balance bike and I see little advantage. I would with my dh if he had done that. It wasn't that expensive anyway. Its a mountain over a mole hill.

Sorry, that made little sense. She had a second balance bike. I would be pleased with my dh if he had done that.