Persuading a reluctant 5yo

ratherbeintobago
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Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by ratherbeintobago »

Our 5yo was quite capable on a balance bike but just won’t ride her big girl’s bike without stabilisers. She does hurtle about on it though.

Any suggestions what we might try? #1 took to it alllikr a duck to water.
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NUKe
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by NUKe »

They are all different , my youngest was 8 before he felt confident enough to ride without, my advice would be don't worry and don't push it
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ratherbeintobago
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by ratherbeintobago »

Aye, not keen To push it and don’t want to put her off.

On the other hand, it’d be better if she did it...
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Paulatic
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by Paulatic »

I’d agree not to push it.
I’d be tempted to remove the stabilisers, the pedals and lower the saddle. Leave it accessable like that and let her play in it the same as she did the balance bike.

My question is why did you ever let her see it with stabilisers? I thought it was meant to be a natural progression from balance to bike.
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ratherbeintobago
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by ratherbeintobago »

She didn’t. She went on endlessly about how she needed them, presumably as her friends’ bikes have them.
thirdcrank
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by thirdcrank »

I'd agree there's no point in "pushing" a reluctant child to ride a bike, but I had some success with pretending to push my younger son.

The older one took to cycling immediately on a Raleigh "pavement" bike and wouldn't have been seen dead with stabilisers. The younger one in his turn was much more cautious and insisted he needed them. Even his older brother referring to them as babylisers didn't deter him. We went on holiday to a place near New Galloway in Scotland where the roads were really quiet in those days - 1976 IIRC. Out came the bike, still without stabilisers and it was tantrums. I eventually persuaded him to try without and he agreed, so long as I didn't let go of his saddle. He was immediately riding along independently, shouting at me not to let go, with me pretending I was still holding on. After perhaps a couple of hundred yards he came to a natural stop and when he found he had been riding on his own without difficulty, he didn't know whether to be pleased or angry, so he did a bit of both, but he never looked back.

(I thought I had posted about this before but I couldn't find it.)
drossall
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by drossall »

Ours were quite different too. Our son had his first bike at three, and broke three pairs of stabilisers in about four months, at which point I got fed up and taught him to ride without them. Our daughter was simply not interested in learning and refused all encouragement, keeping her stabilisers (the same set, if I remember correctly) until six and a half.
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by Cyril Haearn »

I would back off and let her do what she wants, little girls can be rebellious

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No!
- it is so interesting
- No!
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- No!
- It is..... dis-gusting
- Where? Let me see!
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eileithyia
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by eileithyia »

As others, don't push it... will do it when she is ready or realises everyone else is doing it without her... Son was 8/9 before he really got to grips with it. He never had stabilisers...just Mum running alongside holding on to the saddle... letting go when he was unsuspecting. But it was quite a while before he had the full confidence to properly balance on his own. He wasn't even keen to 'balance' on a scooter so I was quite amused to arrive at after school club one day, and to see the determined look on his face as he concentrated on trying to scoot and balance.... at least he was making the effort in his own good time.

One of the delights of New Forest Cycling week is seeing at least one child take off and ride their own bike around the camp site... encouraged I am sure by the fact that so many others are doing the same... they just get on and do it.
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AMMoffat
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by AMMoffat »

You could try taking off one of the stabilisers. That was my father's method and it weaned 3 of us off stabilisers pretty quickly and for your daughter will seem like a progression to eventually cycling without.
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by Vorpal »

All kids are different. My oldest learned to ride her pedal bike when she was 4 and has hardly looked back. At 11 (almost 12) she now rides the 2 miles to school every day. My youngest learned to ride his pedal bike when he was six, and at 9 still prefers the back of the tandem. :lol:
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by Vorpal »

I had a couple more thoughts about this... Some children are happy to do/attempt things for rewards (bribes!).

You can also try taking the pedals off, as well as the stabilisers and letting her ride it as a 'balance bike'.
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Marcus Aurelius
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by Marcus Aurelius »

ratherbeintobago wrote:Our 5yo was quite capable on a balance bike but just won’t ride her big girl’s bike without stabilisers. She does hurtle about on it though.

Any suggestions what we might try? #1 took to it alllikr a duck to water.



#5
ratherbeintobago
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by ratherbeintobago »

Marcus Aurelius wrote:
ratherbeintobago wrote:Our 5yo was quite capable on a balance bike but just won’t ride her big girl’s bike without stabilisers. She does hurtle about on it though.

Any suggestions what we might try? #1 took to it alllikr a duck to water.



#5


Rule 5? :shock:
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pjclinch
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Re: Persuading a reluctant 5yo

Post by pjclinch »

ratherbeintobago wrote:Our 5yo was quite capable on a balance bike but just won’t ride her big girl’s bike without stabilisers. She does hurtle about on it though.

Any suggestions what we might try? #1 took to it alllikr a duck to water.


I'd also be inclined to wait, but half-seriously you might point out that real big girl's bikes don't have stabilisers. This sort of thing is fine for big girls, but not stabilisers...

Image

More seriously, stabilisers are frowned on in cycle training circles because while they make pedalling easier they make balance and steering inherently unlike a normal bike, and at speed you can't lean in to bends properly and don't have the greater stability of a proper trike. This isn't anything new, mind... I was forbidden them in the 70s even though they looked like a good idea to me at the time, but my folks had it right!

Shutting the stable door when the horse is away, but if there's a Next Time just refuse to have anything to do with them...

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