Our neighborhood is not bike-friendly for a kid learning to ride. We spent several weekends hauling all our bikes out to a safe trail and ending with frustration and tears. My DH regularly does century rides and wanted so much to have cycling be a dad/kid experience.

Luckily, my kid's school does biking starting in K, and they've got an instructor and fun/challenging paths and trails. Kid learned first week of K after a summer of frustration.

Sort of like how I came home in tears every time my mom/dad tried to teach me to drive a 5-speed, but my HS boyfriend taught me in like half an hour.

Kids sometimes are more open to learning things from people other than parents.

My own parents outsourced this about 40 years ago to my uncle because when they tried we all just ended up yelling at each other. Sometimes parents teaching a child just doesn't work.

My kids couldn't learn how to ride a bike when they were 4/5, so we just waited until they got older and then they both picked it up in a single day. You do have to find a good flat place for them to practice on, but I just ran behind them until they figured it out.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it's very depressing to me to see this. Unless the child has some special needs that require an outside person for physiological or emotional reasons, which I suppose you never know. But I do know families that outsource 90% of their parenting and think that attending back-to-school night makes them involved.

Obviously people are not spending money on something that would have been easy to do themselves in a short period of time. How is that not obvious to you? 90% of the time, you are judging people who are doing their best in an imperfect situation. And it hurts them when you post $h!t like this.

I was able to teach one kid easily at age four. Naive me thought anyone who didn't do exactly that was lazy or a bad parent. (I'm kidding about the last part, but looking at you OP).

My other child tried so hard, and we worked at it, but he couldn't get it. So we tried the REI program too, but eventually he needed a physical therapist who understood his body better to teach him. Then we practiced as much as he would tolerate us, and there were years of bike refusal, so we didn't press -- its supposed to be fun, after all. He finally got it at age 13.

There is no obvious difference between these kids, so I'm sure people judged, but I know it is because they have had the good luck in life to not deal with differences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is on the spectrum even though he is on the high end side. He can’t bike and swim, and that frustrates him. Which biking class in REI in Columbia or Alexandria is better? He can’t even balance. Either location is quite far away from us and I wish there is something closer for bike class in Montgomery county area.

How old is he?

6 year old, going to be 7 soon.

Anonymous wrote:None of the kids in our neighborhood seem to ride bikes. My two kids have zero desire to learn but I signed them up for the REI class. Came highly recommended. I really don’t know how to teach them to balance! I’m not great at it myself and don’t own a bike. I’m not sure why that’s sad to you - would you prefer they never learn?

I came to this thread for recommendations for classes, didn’t realize I could also pick up my world’s worst mom award. Thanks so much!

But it’s also this, for whatever reason only one of my kids friends ride a bike so my kid is not very interested but I want her to learn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of the kids in our neighborhood seem to ride bikes. My two kids have zero desire to learn but I signed them up for the REI class. Came highly recommended. I really don’t know how to teach them to balance! I’m not great at it myself and don’t own a bike. I’m not sure why that’s sad to you - would you prefer they never learn?

We live in the suburbs but there is nowhere safe to bike here. There are more cars per household and more people driving than ever. Our neighborhoods aren't safe for biking like mine was growing up. I biked a lot in college and did centuries out of town on small country roads and think it is 10x less safe in my neighborhood than there.

I don’t have a sidewalk ifo my house. I took my kid to a school playground when it was closed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some parents need the extra help. My dd was super anxious and it took a long time to teach her. I did consider having her go to a class, but we got there on our own in the end.. I would say don't judge people for this, you don't know their circumstances.

I am not judging people, I am judging society. If there are organized classes, clearly this is a widespread phenomenon.

Those Learn to Ride a Bike classes in this area have been around for at least 20 yrs now that I know of but I bet they had been offering them fo years before we discovered them as well. I bet you didn’t know that.

My niece works at a summer camp that is all about teaching kids to ride bikes. 1 week sessions

Anonymous wrote:It is easier said to be done. I can't swim and I can't bike. DH can swim and bike, and he has been teaching our boy to swim & bike on and off for 2 years plus, and it is going nowhere. Is there learning to bike session in germantown area?

Tell your DH to follow this video and your son will be all set. You’re welcome!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ADkm4qkXAj8

Anonymous wrote:My kid is on the spectrum even though he is on the high end side. He can’t bike and swim, and that frustrates him. Which biking class in REI in Columbia or Alexandria is better? He can’t even balance. Either location is quite far away from us and I wish there is something closer for bike class in Montgomery county area.

How old is he?

My kid is on the spectrum even though he is on the high end side. He can’t bike and swim, and that frustrates him. Which biking class in REI in Columbia or Alexandria is better? He can’t even balance. Either location is quite far away from us and I wish there is something closer for bike class in Montgomery county area.

Anonymous wrote:None of the kids in our neighborhood seem to ride bikes. My two kids have zero desire to learn but I signed them up for the REI class. Came highly recommended. I really don’t know how to teach them to balance! I’m not great at it myself and don’t own a bike. I’m not sure why that’s sad to you - would you prefer they never learn?

We live in the suburbs but there is nowhere safe to bike here. There are more cars per household and more people driving than ever. Our neighborhoods aren't safe for biking like mine was growing up. I biked a lot in college and did centuries out of town on small country roads and think it is 10x less safe in my neighborhood than there.

Anonymous wrote:Autism has run rampant. Lots of kids are on the spectrum. Learning to ride a bike is challenging to them. The classes help. Not all kids end up riding right after the class. It’s a help though. But still requires hours and hours of parental support.

It's not just autism. Lots of kids have developmental delays that you would only know about if you worked pretty closely with the kid. My kids were premature and had less visible disabilities and were delayed in motor coordination. They didn't learn to ride or swim until well after the point where their peers learned. I figured out tricks to teach them to ride but had planned to put them in a class. I'm a sahm who is knowledgeable about their issues and committed to helping them, so stop with the horrible parents crap. The class I know about tends to have a majority of kids with disabilities. Jerk op doesn't realize all the different issues kids can have and the different degrees and types of issues kids can have.