I Used to Ride My Bike Everywhere. My Kids Don't.

On the loss of freedom of movement

Photo by Ziv Paczy on Unsplash

All of my best and worst memories as a kid came from riding my bike, which I did all day every day from the time I was around eight until I could drive. At first, I just rode out front in the street. One time, when I was around eight, I competed with the kid next door at a trick context to see who could impress this girl. I ran into a short brick wall in front of our house and ripped the skin off my leg. She picked me as the winner out of pity. Pretty good, if you ask me. Another time my parents let me go off with a couple other neighborhood boys on our bikes and we rode out of the housing track into a dirt field where we intended to play but three older boys were there and they told us to leave, that it was their field, and I cried and pushed my bike home. But mostly I just rode around the streets, went off jumps, met new kids, and had adventures. The older I got, the more time I spent on my bike. By this time it was a blue Diamondback. We moved out into a rural area in the desert, and I would spend hours riding around the desert with my friends or riding in front of the house of the girl I had a crush on. I rode all over the small town I lived in with no phone. No way for my parents to get ahold of me if there was an emergency and no easy way for me to get ahold of them if I got in trouble. And everything was fine and terribly fun. It was a great childhood. I highly recommend it. And yet, when my kids ride their bikes, they mostly ride with us or ride in front of our house with supervision. Something has changed, and it’s not just with my kids.