Stick with balance bike or succumb to pedaled bike with training wheels?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was also skeptical of the balance bike and had basically given up on it, then a few months after our first "lessons" with it, I suggested taking it out on a walk (figuring I'd wind up carrying it most of the time) and DD took off on it. It was amazing. I don't know if her body/brain just put together the stuff we'd been trying to show her previously, or if nothing we said mattered and she just needed to figure it out on her own, but suddenly it was her favorite thing.

She's now 4.5 and we are thinking about getting a pedal bike with training wheels because she's outgrowing the balance bike. We are honestly not in a hurry either way -- she also loves her scooter. If she weren't getting too tall for the balance bike, I think we'd stick with it for another year even because she's so quick on it.

So I guess my suggestion is to give it a couple months and then pull it out and see if anything has changed. One of the best things about the balance bike is that it is very easy for them to stop on it, which is great for teaching safety in the neighborhood. The coordination of stopping a pedal bike is more complicated and I know it's going to stress me out for a bit once we switch.

If she's great on a balance bike, you may not need the training wheels. Once my kids were super competent on the balance bike they switched over to regular pedal bikes seamlessly -- no learning curve at all. It was like magic. They got on and pedaled off.

PP here. That would be awesome! She knows how to pedal from her trike days but I do feel like she might need a refresher. But most pedal bikes for this size come with training wheels whether you want them or not, so we'll see.

Teaching a child to ride a bike has been a funny experience for me because I am from a huge family and got lost in the shuffle and my parents forgot to get me a bike or teach me to ride. I was like 11 and my dad asked why I couldn't just ride my bike to school and I said I didn't know how and that's when I learned. Oops! So in my mind learning to ride a bike at 4 or 5 is like some kind of miracle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the balance bike fad is really dumb and something that’s become popular because it’s seen as European. American kids used to grow up with training wheels. I think training wheels are great because you immediately get to experience the beauty of a bicycle: speed and actually transporting yourself somewhere faster than you can walk. Balance bikes are awkward and slow compared to a bike with training wheels and just aren’t a lot of fun, as your smart daughter has quickly figured out. If it were so difficult to go from training wheels to a bike generations of kids would never have learned, and yet we all did, with much more enthusiasm than had we all been subjected to balance bikes.

Tl;dr: get her a real bike with training wheels even if you lose cred with the other upper middle class parents.

I thought this (well, not the seeming European part, but the "I learned on training wheels and it was fine" part) and I bought my older kid a bike with training wheels. It took her forever to get off training wheels, including eventually taking a class--where they taught them to ride by removing the pedals and essentially turning their bikes into balance bikes. She got it in 1 afternoon after 2 years of struggling.

So we went the balance bike route with our younger kid and he went straight from balance bike to regular bike without ever needing training wheels. He was riding a bike much earlier than his friends who went the training wheels route.

I'm not sure where awkward and slow comes from either. Kids are speed demons on those things once they figure them out! I mean, sure, they're not long distance transport, but no bike being ridden by a 4 year old is!

[Anonymous]

Be patient. My 3.5 years old son didn't get on riding with a balance bike either. After he turned 4, it took him about a week or two to learn how to ride, with our help. During the balancing phase, his mom stood 20' in front and enticed him to come to her. Once he mastered the balancing, I either held the saddle or gave him a little push while he was pedaling.

[Anonymous]

My kids hated the balance bike and never used it. They loved training wheels and, like tons of children throughout history, easily transitioned to no training wheels between 3.5 and 4 years old. Just go with whatever your child enjoys!

[Anonymous]

We had a bike with training wheels, kid rode it twice at age 4. Kid instead loved scooter. Rode scooter until 5, bike without pedals (cheap balance bike) for two hours and said put the pedals on. Rode away no problem. The scooter time plus another year of growth must have done the trick.

[Anonymous]

Thanks from OP. I appreciate the input and think we will keep the balance bike and see if she gets more interested as the weather warms up but we are outside more. If she’s super not into it after the summer then maybe we will get a traditional bike with training wheels to use before the winter.

[Anonymous]

My kids could
Never really get into the balance bike, I have friends whose kids were speeding around at very young ages (2-3) but my kids could never really get the hang of it. Now elementary ages (K and 2nd) they both ride “big kid” bikes great just as well as those other kids so I wouldn’t stress too much.

[Anonymous]

Balance bike is "best practices" but don't beat yourself up if your kids don't take to it. I used a bike with training wheels when I was learning and had them on forever, til like 6 or 7 years old, and I ride 60+ miles competitively now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was also skeptical of the balance bike and had basically given up on it, then a few months after our first "lessons" with it, I suggested taking it out on a walk (figuring I'd wind up carrying it most of the time) and DD took off on it. It was amazing. I don't know if her body/brain just put together the stuff we'd been trying to show her previously, or if nothing we said mattered and she just needed to figure it out on her own, but suddenly it was her favorite thing.

She's now 4.5 and we are thinking about getting a pedal bike with training wheels because she's outgrowing the balance bike. We are honestly not in a hurry either way -- she also loves her scooter. If she weren't getting too tall for the balance bike, I think we'd stick with it for another year even because she's so quick on it.

So I guess my suggestion is to give it a couple months and then pull it out and see if anything has changed. One of the best things about the balance bike is that it is very easy for them to stop on it, which is great for teaching safety in the neighborhood. The coordination of stopping a pedal bike is more complicated and I know it's going to stress me out for a bit once we switch.

If she's great on a balance bike, you may not need the training wheels. Once my kids were super competent on the balance bike they switched over to regular pedal bikes seamlessly -- no learning curve at all. It was like magic. They got on and pedaled off.

Yeah this was our experience with older DC- he took to the balance bike around 2.5 and then for his 4th birthday we got him a pedal bike and the transition was pretty easy.

Now his younger sister is 3 and barely interested in the balance bike at all. She'd rather ride her scooter. Trying not to push as I recognize her older brother picked it up earlier than most kids do. But I do hope she'll take to it eventually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the balance bike fad is really dumb and something that’s become popular because it’s seen as European. American kids used to grow up with training wheels. I think training wheels are great because you immediately get to experience the beauty of a bicycle: speed and actually transporting yourself somewhere faster than you can walk. Balance bikes are awkward and slow compared to a bike with training wheels and just aren’t a lot of fun, as your smart daughter has quickly figured out. If it were so difficult to go from training wheels to a bike generations of kids would never have learned, and yet we all did, with much more enthusiasm than had we all been subjected to balance bikes.

Tl;dr: get her a real bike with training wheels even if you lose cred with the other upper middle class parents.

IA w/you. The fact that some people think it's one or the other is so silly.

[Anonymous]

I think maybe the issue is that she's experienced the trike and scooter already, and those are similar, but easier and so more fun. Give it time, let her scoot (though I wouldn't bring back the trike) and reintroduce the bike in a few months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the balance bike fad is really dumb and something that’s become popular because it’s seen as European. American kids used to grow up with training wheels. I think training wheels are great because you immediately get to experience the beauty of a bicycle: speed and actually transporting yourself somewhere faster than you can walk. Balance bikes are awkward and slow compared to a bike with training wheels and just aren’t a lot of fun, as your smart daughter has quickly figured out. If it were so difficult to go from training wheels to a bike generations of kids would never have learned, and yet we all did, with much more enthusiasm than had we all been subjected to balance bikes.

Tl;dr: get her a real bike with training wheels even if you lose cred with the other upper middle class parents.

Uh, what? I think you’re confused. I’ve never seen any kid zoom anywhere on training wheels. Even toddlers can get the hang of balance bikes and go zooming around. Even if they can’t glide yet, they can still run on them. I have no idea where you got the idea that balance bikes are slow.

[Anonymous]

My oldest hated the balance bike but loves her bike with training wherls at 5. Youngest figured out the balance bike before 3 and is super fast on it. Its all kid dependent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Training wheels are there for a reason and not every kid responds to being thrown off the deep end. Get her a bike with training wheels so she learns how to enjoy riding a bike first.

Thrown off the deep end? I think some of you don’t actually know how balance bikes work. When you start on them, your feet are flat on the ground. It’s like you are walking while sitting on a bike. There is nothing scary about it…. Unless your parent is pressuring you to glide before you get there yourself.

[Anonymous]

I am so sick of the elitist “my son skipped training wheels!” notion.

Who cares. Really. Not a single expert or PT or anyone said that training wheels are bad, and balance bikes are better.