Aibu buying a bike for son

[nowornever1]

Sorry a bit long

My dh is a great dad but adores our children too much sometimes especially our eldest DS 12

Eldest has been really good during lock down and quite lonely as he can't see his best friend who lives the other side of our city, and they usual see each other most weekends and play online etc.

We've been encouraging our son to call up school friends who live by so they can go out on their bikes or to the park, but apparently his BMX we bought last summer is no good he needs a proper bike (mountain bike)
I don't mind buying him a new bike as we discussed it before, and I was thinking he could get one for his birthday in July but would make sense to buy one now. But I was thinking a £200 ish bike

But now DS and DH are looking at £500 bike which I think is too much as we have 3 kids so can't justify spending that much on 1 and also whilst we can afford it, we could also spend that money on other stuff for the home or the family. And I'm worried about DH job who is self employed and in construction so worried about recession etc.

DH can't bear to say no to DS as he wants him to fit in and have cool stuff but I think whilst I want him to have stuff I think we are spoiling him and whilst he does his school work etc it's always the minimum required.

I don't know who is being AIBU ?

At 12, any bike you buy now he will soon outgrow. I would not want to be spending so much on a bike, even if I could afford it.

That's exactly my thoughts

Have you tried looking on eBay for second hand bikes or Gumtree or the local for sale and wanted pages on Facebook? That's what I've done most of the time for our kids bikes. We want them to have the ridgebacks and the frog bikes etc but they're too expensive. Kids outgrow them so fast there are often good ones available.

£500 but it’s his Christmas present as well - and be clear on that.

We did gumtree for middle child to get him a bike we wanted. But we haven't seen this bike as it's quite new and fashionable. And I've fallen for the it's your birthday and xmas present and I know he also wants some Nike's that are about £80 for his birthday too !

DS has offered to give £150 he had saved from grandparents for his cancelled school trip towards the bike but it's still so much money I feel for a bike

I suppose it depends a lot on your income, but that sounds like a ridiculous amount to spend on a bike, for a child who is going to grow, a lot, in the coming years.

I also think it's better to teach your dc that having "the named" bike / phone / gadget / clothes / trainers really isn't that important in the scheme of things. So even if you had the money and the secure income that you are worrying you might not, I think this is an importnat thing to learn now, at 12, otherwise you have a HUGE amount of money to be wasted not only over the next 12 years or so of his life, but also for your other dc.
We've all been thre, wanting "the thing that is cool at the moment", and the most content adults are those whose parents taught them that 'names' or 'fashion' weren't the important things to focus on.

If he's willing to contribute £150 and have it as his main birthday present I think that's ok if you can afford it, is he quite tall? DH would've been on an adult bike by that age so less of a concern, but DB was tiny until around 14 and had a growth spurt

Also could you get it via the cycle to work scheme and save 20%?