Letting go....again

B reached a milestone in the last school holidays that makes me really happy and a little bit sad at the same time. He's riding a bike.

At eight it might be a bit late on his list of achievements, we haven't intentionally held him back. His late learning to ride has been a consequence of situation. Living in a house with no backyard close to busy roads then moving to a house on a hill. But over the holidays we stayed in the beach shack with its wide long driveway and safe esplanade bike path round the corner. B has been scooting for a while now so we hoped it wouldn't take too much, just so long as he would give it a try.

Getting kids to try new things can be tricky. They don't want to fail, so a lot of encouragement is needed. With the new bike in the car we talked to him about practising something before its perfect. We told him stories of how we learnt to ride. Our embarrassing bike crashes that had me caught up in a rose bush and his father in a creek, complete with wet newspapers he was meant to be delivering. So when he came to trying out the bike and not getting it straight away he would know its a process.



But I need not have worried, whether it was the balancing practise on his scooter or his mature 8 years, he was riding that bike within an hour. As proud as we were I couldn't help feel like I had just lost a hold of him. Now he has his own method of transport, his own wheels.



After a big bike ride along the esplanade, I asked him, "Did you taste the freedom?"
B said, "No Mum you kept calling me back."