Cycling is without a doubt one of the most astonishing recreational activities anyone can think of. It provides several health advantages, including both physical and emotional well-being.
Despite this, you may have found it difficult at times to persuade your children to ride their bicycles more often.
Nowadays, children are hooked to their smart devices. As a result, most parents have to push their children to leave the house and play outside.
Since kids now can easily access very advanced devices. It definitely has made them smarter in various senses.
But at the same time, kids are so addicted to these devices; they prefer to stay indoors using their phones or laptops than going out to play. Even so, they connect themselves with their friends in the virtual world.
Technological advancement has made our lives easier, more so lives of people who have kids. But, this situation worries many parents when they become unable to motivate their kids to get out of their houses to play.
For me, one of the best memories from my childhood is cycling whenever I had spare time. In fact, cycling was one of my favorite outdoor sports.
But the time was so different back then than it is now. We did not have access to these sophisticated techs as children now have (thank goodness we didn’t!).
Those thrilling moments where you let loose, whenever the fresh air rushes you as you pedal freely, are a sheer pleasure in life. Then, how can we let our children miss out on all the fun?
Here are few tips which you can use to motivate your kids to ride a bike if you are also dealing with the same issues:
- Sharing your own biking experience
- Watch some fun biking videos
- Get them a nice bike
- Get them cool biking gears
- Ride with them and train them
- Take them to the cycling park
- Plan for family biking trips
- Ask them to choose a destination to bike
- Provide them various opportunities
- Celebrate achievements
Lets get on them in detail.
1. Share Your own Biking Experience
You can discuss your childhood biking experiences. Share essential riding tips and techniques with them. If you are fond of cycling, let them know your love for cycling.
Explain to them the benefits of cycling and encourage them to ride bikes frequently.
2. Watch Funny Biking Videos with Kids
There are several cycling videos available on the internet these days. Finding entertaining footage of kids or adults performing interesting moves while riding might help stimulate your kids’ enthusiasm.
Children enjoy challenges, so witnessing other children make such moves and cycling with ease may persuade them to believe that they, too, can pull off similar actions.
This definitely motivates them to ride their bikes more frequently.
3. Get your Kids a Suitable Bike
Get the best suitable bike for your kids if you want them to have a good time bicycling.
Your children’s bikes should not be overly hefty or too tall. Look for bikes with a pleasant appearance, excellent quality, and not too heavy or tall if you want to motivate your kids to ride.
If your children have a terrible bike experience from the start, it will influence how they think about cycling in the future.
4. Get your Kids Cool Biking Gears
Providing children with a few basic bicycle accessories might entice them to go for a ride.
Purchasing equipment such as helmets, gloves, knee pads, or even cycling clothing can inspire them to bike while also keeping their children safe. Allowing kids to select their gear would consequently motivate them to ride more often.
Here is another article covering plenty of Cool Bike Accessories your kids would love to have on their bikes.
5. Ride with Your Kids & Train Them
Children learn most of what they know by observing their parents in the early years.
As a parent, you are unquestionably your children’s first instructor. Therefore, you should ride with your children and teach them by demonstrating to them how to do it.
Similarly, when children do not know how to ride, they get self-conscious when riding in front of other children or in public. You may teach your children completely separately before allowing them to ride with other children.
Alternatively, if you always have a busy schedule and cant train your kids by yourself, there are plenty of institutions from where you can book a bike lesson for your kids. I have covered it in my article: Best websites to Book a Bike Lesson for your Kids.
6. Take your Kids to Cycling Parks
If there are any parks in your neighborhood, especially those that allow cycling, take your children there to spend some time.
They will observe other children having fun at the park, and this way, you can motivate your kids to ride. Similarly, there are general areas within the park designated for children to learn and practice riding.
There is no other safe location for your children to learn to ride a bike than at a children-friendly cycling park.
7. Plan for Family Biking Trips
You might look for bike-friendly places with lovely sights and organize family riding excursions once in a while. These types of vacations would be relaxing, and you would appreciate the stunning scenery with your family.
You may also carry your child’s favorite easy-to-pack food and prepare some fun post-ride games. These would undoubtedly inspire your children to keep going.
In addition, your children will remember these enjoyable family activities.
8. Ask your Kids to choose a Destination to Bike
Allow them to pick any location for their next ride, such as a chocolate shop, restaurant, or play park.
Show excitement for their decision or interest, and encourage them to look into other areas they might be interested in visiting in the future.
9. Buy Biking Storybooks for your Kids
There are plenty of storybooks related to kids biking. These books inspire your kids to ride bikes more often and even motivates them to learn to ride if they still don’t know-how.
Kids tend to follow the story’s characters and thus it’s an effective way to motivate your kids to ride.
Here is a list of a few best Children’s book for Bike riding:
- Shred Till Bed – The MBT Animal Alphabet
- Giraffe on a Bicycle
- Mike and the Bike
- Duck on a Bike
- Bear on a Bike
- Daniel Learns to Ride a Bike
- Franklin Rides a Bike
- Rexy the Dinosaur and a New Bike
- If You Give a Girl a Bike
10. Celebrate your Kids’ Achievements
It is imperative to recognize and appreciate your children’s accomplishments, no matter how minor.
Allowing them to know how proud you are of their successes encourages them to take on new challenges.
Furthermore, rewarding them with something that makes them happy is one of the most excellent methods to recognize their achievements.
Every time your children do anything significant or minor, rewarding them will encourage them to do even more and better in the future.
Why are Kids Hesitant to Ride?
When you’ve tried everything to get your kids to bike, but nothing seems to be working. You are going on it incorrectly.
Before you put in all the effort to get your kids to ride more regularly, you need to understand why they are hesitant to ride. More importantly, if they are constantly reluctant to ride, find out why. Knowing the right reason allows you to choose the best strategies to inspire them.
When children do not know how to ride correctly, they often feel self-conscious about riding in front of a large crowd. Most of the time, they are overwhelmed with the dread of falling off their bike when learning to ride.
Children may also experience anxiety when learning to bike. As a result, you don’t want to stress out your children by pushing them too hard.
Typically, children learn to ride a bike with a training wheel attached to it. They gain a sense of protection and security when they have training wheels on.
However, once those wheels are gone, kids are no longer motivated to ride their bikes. They believe the wheels keep their bike steady and that if they don’t have them, they will tumble.
You can always provide them with safety gear such as a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads. These items will eventually increase their confidence, making them feel protected and secure.
However, you will eventually have to remove the training wheels and teach your children to ride without them.
Choose locations where your children are less likely to be injured while teaching them to ride without extra wheels.
For example, allowing children to bike in the grass is less dangerous than allowing them to ride on a hard paved roadway.
Your children may fall numerous times while practicing cycling; this is natural for any newbie. However, repeated practice will boost their confidence since they will not fear falling off the bike.
With it, kids will be prepared to surpass any milestone that comes their way while riding.
Another reason children are hesitant to ride bicycles is if they are uncomfortable with their bikes or with the gears. If the bicycle's height is too high and your children cannot touch their feet to the ground, they will be afraid to pedal freely.
Henceforth, you may help them overcome this difficulty by lowering the bike seat as much as possible or purchasing the ideal bike.
My Opinion
As a parent, I would prefer my kids to be more adventurous than a tech-freak. It might not be the same case for all.
If you want to make your children your biking companion, you need to guide and motivate your kids to ride from an early age.
But saying this, don’t force your kids to get in biking more often against their interest. After all, parents need to treat kids as their friends!
