My Bicycle Diaries - Day Thirty-nine

Sometimes, I wish I were a better teacher. Today, we took the training wheels off my son's bike because we wasn't learning to ride as much as he was learning to lean. I want to teach him that it's okay to take a risk, and that he needs to keep peddling if he wants to stay up. As I am sitting here, I am googling, "How to teach to ride a bike."

It is frustrating because he keeps giving up before he even starts, and I don't teach well when I frustrated. My wife interceded and began to work with him. She gave up after ten minutes because she realized after running back and forth for ten minutes that she was just a replacement for the training wheels .

I am going to have to sit down with him before we try this again because I want to reassure him. Yes, he's going to fall, and yes he's going to get bumped and bruised, but the sooner he gets over his fear and actually pedals, the sooner he'll be a real bicyclist. He ands I will be able to ride together.