Kids cross a big childhood milestone when they graduate from a tricycle to a two-wheeler. Their next step? Cycling on their own. It’s normal to feel scared for your children, especially when you don’t know whether your kid is road-ready. How can any parent know when the time is right?
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There aren’t any hard and fast rules that determine when your child is ready to bike on their own. However, your answer to the following questions should help you decide if they are.
Table of Contents
1. Does Your Child Know How to Stay Safe While Biking?
Safety should be your top priority when assessing whether your child can be out on their own. Your child should know how to put on their helmet and adjust it to fit. If they refuse to wear a helmet, then you shouldn’t trust them to take other safety measures, such as locking their bike.
Parents should also teach their children how to perform a general bike check on their tires, handlebars, and brakes. You can teach these safety tips to children as young as eight. Most cities will offer free bicycle safety courses to children, so consider attending these events.
2. Can Your Child Avoid the Leading Cause of Bicycle Accidents?
The leading cause of bicycle collisions are cars, so your child should avoid biking directly on the road until they’re older. On the sideway, there’s still a possibility they’ll get hurt if they fall off the bike, travel on cracked or damaged roadways, or collide with a fixed object or running animal.
To ensure your child stays safe, only allow them to bike during the summer and next to local roads. If you live next to a highway, advise them to bike away from dangerous or fast traffic.
3. Does Your Child Know How to Stay Safe From Strangers?
We should also talk about abductions. While the media may make parents feel like abductions are happening more frequently, the numbers go down every year. You should also be aware that 90% of abductions are completed by parents, and less than 1% are completed by strangers.
Numbers aside, you should still teach your child how to stay safe from strangers. For example, they shouldn’t bike on dark paths at night or get off their bicycle to speak to someone in a car. We recommend giving your child a cellphone, so they can call for help or text you at any time.
4. Has Your Child Completed a “Test Run” on Their Bike?
Kids love to be active, and they’re more than willing to prove they can bike by themselves, so ask them to do an independent test run across the street or to a friend’s house. You could even watch them travel from your home, just to make sure they aren’t doing anything risky.
If you notice your child isn’t paying attention to the road or they’re acting dangerously, they aren’t ready. You may need to reteach one of your bicycle safety lessons if that’s the case.
5. Do They Have the Confidence to Venture Out on Their Own?
While some children want to be as independent as possible, other children get nervous just thinking about it. If your child isn’t ready to bike on their own, you shouldn’t push them. Not only will you make them more nervous, but their nervousness could cause them to make mistakes.
Still, it’s a bad idea to wait for them to build up confidence in themselves. Instead, take them out on bike rides and make sure they get a lot of practice in. Let them know you’re proud of them.
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