Carter Riding His Bike....Finally!

Some of you know the lengths we have gone to get Carter to try his bike without training wheels. It has been the thorn in our side for months now. Last spring we took a trip with some friends to a beach house and took his training wheels off. Unlike our house in FL there was a lot of flat space with no traffic, so it was perfect for him to practice. He did really well and got going and everything. Problem was he wrecked, right into a corvette. At first instinct, I was worried about the corvette and some kind of ridiculous angry neighbor. However, both Carter and the car were unharmed. It wasn't a particularly bad wreck. I don't think he was even bleeding. But from that point on he decided that he wasn't going to ride bikes anymore. We tried encouraging, bribing, and even ignoring the fact that he wouldn't ride his bike. He tried to teach Clay to ride without training wheels in hopes that it would push Carter to do it. After that weekend, we told him that he was old enough to ride without training wheels and that we would not be putting them back on. So....his bike sat and collected dust for weeks at a time. We made him try about once a month which ended up in screaming and crying from Cory, him, and me. He was determined to make it a miserable experience for all. He refused to actually try. Instead, during those 'practice' sessions he whined and complained about how he couldn't do it until we were all tired and sent him to his room for whining and crying. Fast forward to our move to CA. I was SURE he would be begging to learn to ride once we moved here. There are tons of kids and they all ride bikes without training wheels. (even the 3 year olds!). Surely seeing a 3 year old ride a bike without training wheels is a good motivator!? Carter pretended not to notice. He would still play with all the kids, but instead of riding his bike, he would run or ride some other ride on toy. Both Cory and I were getting extremely frustrated that he wouldn't give it an honest effort. We started to obsess about it. He WILL LEARN TO RIDE A BIKE! We talked about it and came up with a plan. We told Carter the next day. "Carter, you're not allowed to turn 6 until you can ride a bike without training wheels." "Why?" "Do you know anyone who is six who rides with training wheels?" "Um, no," "Do you know anyone who is FIVE who rides with training wheels?" "No..." "Well, then you were probably lucky to get to turn 5, then." "Yeah..." "That's just the way of the universe. You just can't turn 6 if you still ride with training wheels. You just...can't." "No presents, or cake or anything?" "Nope." And 10 minutes later, this happened.

We knew he could do it. When you're 5 and a half, you have the agility and balance to ride a bike. He just needed something to motivate him. Apparently, wanting to turn 6 will do it.