Ok, I admit it. This is a shameless entry whose topic has been selected soley because I want to win a Balance Bike for one of my kids from
http://www.5minutesformom.com/. However, it is a good topic, so I don't mind.
I am going to admit right now that my memories from childhood are a big fog - So I'm not sure that I totally remember my first bike ride - but here is what I do remember.
I remember that I first learned to ride on a hand-me down bike from my sister that was a little too big for me. I think I was around 6 - I'm not sure. My dad didn't think too much of training wheels (although my sister apparently had had them - I know this from another story. Don't know if my brothers ever had them or not.) So - I remember my dad running behind me a lot. I do remember falling a fair bit - although I did get good enough to manage. I remember having to start by a curb, and having to get close enough to a curb as I stopped.
When I was around 7, my school had a bike event of some sort after school - I think they checked your bikes out, and tested you on being able to manuver on the bike: going straight, going through cones, going on a circle. I think you got some sort of little prize if you did it all well - maybe a bike license plate or something - the main thing I remember was being very embarrassed and dissappointed. I don't remember what the problem was, whether I didn't do well with the steering etc - or maybe I wasn't even allowed to participate at all because the bike was the wrong size. I didn't ride my bike at all for a long time after that.
Another bit that I remember, but I'm not sure exactly if this was before or after the memories above - is not riding a bike when my friends all were. I had a very large trike, so I sometimes rode that with my friends for a while.....
Over-all, with all that, I started to hate bikes.
Around the time I was almost 9, my mom (my parents were seperated by then) bought me a bike that actually fit me. (my sisters was still too big - I'm wondering how huge it must have been?) It was used, and a boy's bike - but with it being the right size, I could ride it well. I was quite a tom-boy, so it being a blue boy's bike didn't bother me, and to me it was much better than my sister's old bike that I had refused to ride for so long. At that point, I remember riding around the neighbourhood a lot, and the freedom that a bike gave me.
Anyway - Delta, who is almost 6 now has a two wheeled bike. It was a used girl's bike that we have painted blue (it was pink). It does have training wheels still, but he does enjoy it. Echo is 3 and has a tricycle that she likes. It has a push handle so I can push it.... although she can pedal it depending where we are. (At a program we go to they have other trikes that she can pedal very well; I'm not sure why she has such a hard time with ours.) Foxtrot, of course, is only 1 - so she doesn't have anything yet.
I hope you enjoyed the memories!
