Moochie rode her two-wheeler on Saturday, and we’re all pretty excited around here. She’s seven (and a quarter, she’d be quick to amend,) and YouTube is chock full of videos of toddler Evel Kneivels jumping their bikes off garages while blindfolded, so what the hell’s the big deal?
Right? You can admit it. Someone else’s kid learns to ride a bike — that’s a slow news day. But Mooch is not (how do I say this nicely?) overtly gifted in the coordination department.
She’s much, much better than she was before years of PT, OT and karate, and she worked hard to make these gains. Her pat on the back was getting cut off from services because she no longer qualified, but hey. She really is doing OK:
* The very best thing we did was take her to a clinic run by BikeNY that gets a lot of kids riding by the end of the 3 hour session. Moochie managed a ride of about 10 feet that day, but then crashed because her slow, gimpy mother didn’t rescue her in time. She stalked off down the Brooklyn street, furious at me for “making her fall.” I barely caught up to her before she disappeared from sight. Proud parenting moment for me? It actually kind of was, since my little suburban kid wasn’t the least bit intimidated by my clamorous old Brooklyn neighborhood. Even if you’re nowhere nearby, if you know a child that wants to learn how to ride a bike, check out their video to see how they teach.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Believe it or not, i do always marvel over the big two wheeler experience! Hooray for Moochie!
Absolutely! I cheer for Oliver over things that are a given for others. But I think we should judge our kids’ accomplishments by their own effort and progress anyway. My parents never expected us to acheive on any schedule other than our own – so I employ the same attitude with my family (though it’s hard for my husband who grew up in the achieve! be the best! be a star! family).
And for the record – I learned to ride my bike without training wheels when I was seven. No one thought it was late. But that was before the days of the toddler “balance bike” I guess.
@andrea: it IS really cool. That “I can’t balance, I can’t balance, OH! I can” line that gets crossed, and then you can’t NOT balance. For life. Brain’s are cool.
@KCH: good on your parents. I’m pretty sure I was 8 or so, but that was late in our neighborhood. And I absolutely do cheer her on; it’s just in writing about it that the internal critic flares up. And it’s trained on what I’m writing about and how I do it, not on Mooch. I promise.
Um, adorable as Moochie is.
As adorable conquering this skill is.
I’m sad to say, her Mom… has drunk the kool-aid.
And is now punch-drunk.
*grin*
That’s a HARD skill to master. Yay Mooch!!