Curb Meets Bike
Since the weather is getting nicer, my kids like being outside and riding their bikes. My 4 year old son C loves it a lot. Any time he can squeeze in a bike ride, he does. Doesn’t matter if it’s before school, after school, before dinner, after dinner, or anywhere in between.
One afternoon earlier this week, he and his 6 year old sister E wanted to go on a quick bike ride before dinner. They have gotten the routine down where we have a loop in the neighborhood we walk so the doggo can do his business at the usual spots. They know not to cross the roads until I get close by, they know when to come back when they’ve gotten too far, and they know where to stop so I can throw any waste bags away.
On this day, my kids stopped by a roundabout and decided to go in a circle quickly. They were racing each other and C was winning since he is on a balance bike and can maneuver much more quickly to pick up speed on all the turns. E was trying to keep up and riding wider lines around. C was going so close to the curb that the curb took out his back wheel and he flipped his bike over badly.
As he lay on the ground, he didn’t cry and I was hoping for the best. Luckily he said he wasn’t hurt and I’m glad he wore longer pants and a jacket since it protected him from getting some crazy scrapes. I dusted him off and explained that riding near the curb isn’t a good idea because if the back wheel hits the curb, the curb could take out the back wheel and flip the bike like what just happened. C nodded his head and understood.
They kept going around the roundabout for a few more laps and a few minutes after the fall, C got too close to the curb and the back frame of the bike hit the curb again. This time, he didn’t fall and caught himself from wobbling over. At this point, I shook my head to myself. Guess kids need to learn the lesson the hard way sometimes and repeat the lesson until it is drilled into their brain.
The rest of the bike ride consisted of E falling over 3 times and in one particular instance, avoiding a car that was driving way too fast around a turn. She got scared even though she was still on the sidewalk and fell off the bike so she could crawl backwards further away from the street. Luckily, none of the falls were bad and we all made it home in one piece. What an eventful way to spend some time outdoors.
