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I am not ready for the heartbreak that come with other kids teasing my kids. I could barely handle it when I was young (who can?). And I know it’s just a part of childhood, but WHY? Why does it have to be? How does it start? What’s the difference between those who tease and those who don’t? Where does it come from? I really can’t stand it.

Today as my 4 year old rode past some older boys on his scoot bike, which he has recently mastered and is very proud of, I heard one of the boys say- “that’s a cool bike!!!” I saw my boy beam with the satisfaction of an old-year-old noticing his bike and thinking it cool, until one of the others sneered, “that’s a training bike.”
“Well it’s still cool.” Said the first boy.

I was so hopeful he had only heard the positive.

We went down the path a bit and he said to me- “That old-year-old said this was a training bike and it’s not.” And I could see the wind had been knocked out of his 4 year old sails.

So minor, so the tip of the ice berg, so not important, so only the beginning.

I know I won’t be there to carefully walk him through the insensitive things others say to him, nor will I be there to make sure he isn’t one of the ones saying those things. However I am thankful my worldview is such that I don’t measure my worth by what others think of me. That doesn’t help much in the fragility of childhood and adolescence, but I hope and pray I instill in my boys the self confidence that comes from knowing they were created to be on this earth for a purpose.

But enough about that, let’s talk about the bike.

My son is learning to ride on a scoot bike, or balance bike. It has no pedals, no gears or chains. The point is to teach balance on two wheels and let kids skip training wheels altogether to go right to riding a bike.

Within the first few days of riding this bike, he was already going down ramps and balancing for long distances. We plan to put him on his bike with pedals and take his training wheels off this week. The only difference is now he will pedal for momentum instead of “running” with his feet.

We have the Balance Bike made by Smart Gear because of the renewable birch wood construction and non-toxic building materials.