ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

Those of you with older kids - at what age did you teach them to ride a bike without training wheels? We're getting Evie a bike for her 5th birthday and I'm not sure if we should look for training wheels or just jump to teaching her to ride without them now.

If you use the balance bike things (like this: http://www.striderbikes.com/), then you don't have to do training wheels at all...

Obviously not a parent of an older kid, but I was about Evie's age when I got my first real bike and my dad was philosophically opposed to training wheels so I didn't get them and I really hated riding a bike as a result and didn't really ride one regularly until I was in college, at which point I more or less had to learn all over again. I think that's less a matter of training wheels being universally good and more a matter of my father putting adherence his child-rearing ideology above what would work for his actual child.

So I guess my half-assed advice is that if Evie is a generally physically cautious kid, go with training wheels but if she's more gung-ho and less likely to be swayed by falling off a bike, try it without.

Also, though, you can always take the training wheels off if it turns out she doesn't need them.

She's had a balance bike since she was three but she never got the hang of it and hates it. She loves her scooter, but has asked for a bike for this birthday. I think she wants training wheels so we'll probably start off with them I guess.

She can be really brave about some things and really cautious about other things. I really don't want to buy her a bike and then have her not use it because she's too scared to learn to ride without training wheels.

I think we took my big kid's training wheels off at 6. I had mine taken off at six, and after about 10 minutes had an accident that kept me afraid of bikes for a whole year.

We told her day care to stop making her sleep at nap time because there won't be naps when she starts kindergarten in September. So after several days of no naps, she got so overtired, especially in the afternoon. She threw a huge fit on Saturday because we were going to go to Dairy Queen and she wanted to try Dairy Queen but also wanted to get ice cream from the ice cream truck, and it didn't matter that the ice cream truck wouldn't be coming because it was a holiday, because we could go to the store where the ice cream truck gets its ice cream because she really wants to try the Sour Patch Kids ice cream that the ice cream truck has etc etc. She had another fit this morning about getting dressed so I had to eventually physically restrain her so I could dress her. Really hope she gets used to the lack of naps soon.

Seems cruel that there's no naps in kindergarten. Or high school. Or work.

I feel like if Evie wants training wheels, there's no harm in using them. Contrary to Papa Agatha's opinion, I don't think training wheels will make her inherently weak.

Fun fact: my dad actually did that thing where he threw me in the deep end of the pool because while I could hold my own in the shallow end, I was scared to go over my head. That one ended up okay. I swam back out and I still love the water to this day but I haven't spoke to my father in 15 years so.

V learned how to ride without training wheels at 6 1/2 iirc. getting her to even try it was a total nightmare but she got it within a day or two.

I learned to ride on training wheels but the famous story in my family is that a few years later my little sister decided she wanted to ride, so she just got on my bike, tried to ride, and kept trying & falling off in the front yard until she figured it out

which was rad!

but it had the added effect of bumping my sister up to John Wayne status and made me feel like a lame for learning on training wheels lol

I had your little sister's experience. I got a bike for xmas when I was 5 and spent the entire day banging myself up out in the street until I finally got it right. No John Wayne status though. That shit was just expected. Not the funnest way to spend xmas.

the same balance bike was used by boy 1 & boy 2 and they both graduated to a pedal bike at age 3

i am philosophically opposed to scooters which is kind of absurd

Haha I feel the same about scooters.

I'm def pro balance bike for under 5s

Haha I feel the same about scooters.

I'm def pro balance bike for under 5s

Aidan went the balance bike, riding pedal bike at 4, Molly totally prefers the scooter, goes painfully slow on the balance bike and is rapidly reaching the point where she's too big for it (she's 4) so I'm starting to wonder whether she'll want to go down the stabiliser route

my kiddo has had a pretty horrible day, 2-hour each way car journey that he was mostly awake for and fed up. Tetchy all day. Now keeps rolling back to front in bed! First time he's done it and a bit unsettling for me... been turning him back each time but it's weird how he's suddenly doing it.

is it time to start a new thread yet? this one's over 5000 posts...

in other news, as much as I love Kraftwerk, I am really sick of listening to Man-Machine twice a day, need to get my son obsessed w some other album

Has he gone through a Kings of the Wild Frontier phase yet?

ha I should try that. I seriously have no idea why he glommed onto Man-Machine, it feels totally random. He flails his little arms like he's doing the robot when he wants to listen to it.

I second the call for a new thread.

:/

I had a hunch and tried to get my littlest one into Bow Wow Wow one day, but she didn't go for it.

I thought Shonen Knife would be a little kid's dream band, was wrong about that

worked for us, my daughter loves Shonen Knife

am attempting to wean son off of Man-Machine and onto Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, so far so good

The first time Stet played Oxygène to F it blew his mind.

This one's also popular.

So... anybody have any tips on how to ameliorate the total shit show that brushing teeth/putting on clothes has now become? I basically have to put the poor child in a leg lock, then hold her arms down with my forearm to brush her teeth, and putting shirts is clearly torture as she has become screamingly ideologically opposed to clothing in general.

She had another fit this morning about getting dressed so I had to eventually physically restrain her so I could dress her.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, July 6, 2015 12:56 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So no.

Get her dressed while she's still sleeping.

Charts have worked to help us encourage some behavior. A list of things she needs to do (brush teeth, get dressed, etc.) and if she does a good job on all those things for a week or two, she gets a reward. I don't know if this is "good parenting" though because the desired behavior often tapers off once the reward is given and the chart is no longer being updated.

Ivy's too young for charts, or reasoning such as, "You can't go to daycare without a shirt on. We are not hillbillies."

F was totally refusing to have his teeth brushed until I changed up how we did it. Now I take him through to the bathroom and hold him in my arms while we do it at the sink like grown-ups. Now he comes toddling over to me at bedtime doing the "brush teeth" sign and looking excited.

He also went through a phase of hating getting dressed; I think a big part of that is because apparently when teething lying on your back makes it much worse. Trying to keep him upright as much as possible during dressing definitely seemed to help.

Now that you mention it, Ivy does better at teeth brushing when we do it in the bathroom. Although she has screaming shit fits whenever I try to wash her hands and face so I don't know.

huh dunno Judah loves gettin his teeth brushed. have yet to use actual toothpaste but it's clear he just wants to do what his big sister/parents do which is stand in front of the sink, look in the mirror, etc.

P-q

how do i make it sleep for 3 consecutive hours

Still not entirely sure you do.

Nora did 7:30 to 11:30 last night, then until 1:30, then approx 4am, then 6:45. That's a good night. She's in her own room now.

my sympathies.

both my boys have discovered headphones. much hilarity at the broken acapella singalongs. "but the chair is not my son!!"

that's how that song goes, though

...what?

F has done one of those sudden physical and mental leaps that leaves you looking at him going "who has taken my baby and left this broadly similar kid in his place?".

Pro: he seems to be sleeping massively better. Con: I can see the terrible twos brewing.

http://www.tomheroes.com/images5/COMIC%20flaming%20carrot%205.jpg

Yesterday when I was FaceTiming with my wife and kids, J started saying "book" and began crying when my wife gave him the wrong one. Meanwhile, D gave the phone a fist bump when I asked him for one. These are astonishing little dudes IMO.

Oh man, that's adorable.

outis made a new parenting thread btw. ILX Parenting 6: "Put Some Goddamn Pants On Before You Go Outside!" is a thing I say now