Connor the Biker

One thing that frustrated me as a father has been that my youngest boy had no real interest in learning to ride his bike.

I actually taught him to ride almost two years ago when he was 5. If I held the back of his bike and gave him a little push, he could ride on his own for as long as he wanted. I had to run behind and help him stop, though. Actually, the whole balancing part took way less than a day and I figured he would be riding very quickly.

Then, for some inexplicable reason, he decided he was done with his bike. For almost two years every couple weeks I would ask him if he would like to finish learning. His answer was always no. I kept trying to explain that it would take very little work for him to learn to start and stop.

I think he was afraid he would fail. He did not trust me when I told him that he was SOOOOOO close and that he would be able to do it very quickly.

FINALLY this past weekend, I decided that I was done asking him and forced him to try (by bribing him with the promise of playing WII and watching TV).

Starting on his own took a bit of practice, but he actually picked that up pretty quick. Stopping took a bit more, but still not bad. The whole time, he refused to believe that he could do it.

Then, all of a sudden, he got it all put together.

For a considerable amount of Sunday, I ran after him around the bike paths circling the rec center behind our house. Eventually, I gave up because it was too much work.

Then, for hours, he just rode on his own.



Eventually, Mommy got home and we pretended that we thought Connor was close, but not quite there. We asked her if she would take over helping him for awhile. He took off, leaving her in his dust (actually there was not much literal dust). "Aprils Fools, Mommy!".

The video above is sometime after lunch when Mommy was "helping" Connor. You can see him blow by her and then blow by me.

I am proud of him and he is proud of himself. I could not resist throwing in a couple of  I-told-you-that-you could-do-its. He is doing better than I thought he would at this point.

The best part is that he now wants to ride his bike. He told me he wants to ride his bike everyday. We are already planning an actual family bike ride for this coming weekend.