Removing the training wheels
Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org
Duck, N.C.—A summer beach vacation with the extended family: There’s nothing else quite like it, reliving old memories and developing a greater appreciation for how others felt about them at that moment. One particular topic came up at our multigenerational dinner the other night: “Describe your experience of riding on a two-wheel bike for the first time.”
Among the Gen Z crowd at the table, we heard stories of stitched up chins and falls into prickly bushes. However, despite a few harrowing starts, all are now confident twentysomething cyclists with no residual trauma.
The parents’ recollections of events seemed more sober. After all, there are few parental experiences more fraught than teaching your child to ride a two-wheeled bike. It’s as scary as it is unavoidable.
