A Girl's First Big Ride

[BrumJim]

Met up with a friend of mine yesterday. Told me this story:

On their summer holidays this year they gave their 9 year-old daughter a chance to ride a bike. Despite her parents having taken many months learning to ride when they were young, she managed it after just less than 1/2 hour.

Fast forward three or so months and they decide to buy her a bicycle for her birthday, which she loves.

Again, fast forward a month or so, and Mum is upstairs feeling ill, and Dad is at the grandparent's place. Daughter wants to go out on her bike, so Mum gives permission, under the instructions that she doesn't go far, and no further than the park at the top of the road. An hour later and she hasn't returned. Mum rises from the sick bed, goes up to the park, and finds no daughter. In a panic she phones Dad and tells him to come back with the car and to start looking.

Dad leaves the grandparent's house and sets off. He hasn't got far (just a few hundred yards) when he sees a girl on a white bike, just like the one they gave to their daughter. As he gets closer, he sees that it is his daughter on her new bike. She was fed up with being on her own and Mum being in bed that she decided she wanted to go and see Dad.

Only the parent's house is one side of the city, and their house is on the other. Little daughter (now 10) had navigated her way on her own from one to the other using her memory of frequent trips between the two, a distance of 8.5 miles. And the city is Sheffield, so had a couple of decent hills to negotiate on the way.


Dad is so impressed that he fails to tell her off, leaving this duty to Mum. Me? I'm seriously impressed.

 

[welsh dragon]

Very impressive, but as a mum I would have thought of the danger she could have gotten herself into, not only from the traffic, but from other hazzards. She was after all only 9 years old. I would have wanted to let her know how well I thought she had done, while at the same time, letting her know that she should not have done what she did, and that in future she must obey the rules her parents set her, and if not there is a price to pay.

But she did do well.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Appalling for a parent, highly impressive for a 9 year old future cyclist. 8 1/2 miles in Sheffield is equivalent to, what, 12 miles in London? Maybe more. I have trouble not getting lost in that distance from home.

 

[Tyke]

My friend set out with his friend at the age of 14 to go visit his sister, with a rough idea of places on a map ( but without a map) they followed road signs. After a trip of about 70 miles they ended up just about wrecked in Bridlington at the door of a very shocked to see them sister.

The next day as young lads do they thought if they can do it one way they can do it the other, and they did.

My friend has been blind for almost 40 years now but can still describe that ride as though he is doing it today. He will be 70 in a few months time.

 

[steveindenmark]

When my daughter was about 12 she was my sat nav from Southport to the middle of Liverpool and then back again. I was visiting from Denmark and did not have a clue. I think the youngest person to sail single handed round the world is 14 years old. When I was 7 or 8 I used to wander miles away from home during the holidays. Children are good at finding their way about if you give them a chance. Try it with your own, it can be funny. Don't try it with the wife though, it doesn't work.

I think there is far more chance that children can be enticed by perves and weirdos, sitting in their bedroom in front of a computer than they can cycling through Sheffield.

The UK seems to have become a Health and Safety society since I was a child. Fortunately, that plague has not got across the sea to Denmark yet.

I still think daughter should have told mum where she was going though.

Steve

 

[simon the viking]

Impressive though it is As a parent I would have been worried sick when I couldn't find her at the park

 

[welsh dragon]

When my daughter was about 12 she was my sat nav from Southport to the middle of Liverpool and then back again. I was visiting from Denmark and did not have a clue. I think the youngest person to sail single handed round the world is 14 years old. When I was 7 or 8 I used to wander miles away from home during the holidays. Children are good at finding their way about if you give them a chance. Try it with your own, it can be funny. Don't try it with the wife though, it doesn't work.

I think there is far more chance that children can be enticed by perves and weirdos, sitting in their bedroom in front of a computer than they can cycling through Sheffield.

The UK seems to have become a Health and Safety society since I was a child. Fortunately, that plague has not got across the sea to Denmark yet.

I still think daughter should have told mum where she was going though.

Steve

Sorry to disagree with you, but it has nothing to do with being pc or anything else. In this day and age, there are far too many dangers outt there for a 9 year old to be able to deal with. Would you be saying the same thing, if something had happened to her. Something bad. ? I don't think so. 9 year olds do not have the capacity to see danger, let alone deal with it.
I live near machynlleth, where last year 5yrd, old april jones was snatched while she was on her bike in front of her own home. Think about things like.

 

[alans]

The 9 yr old young Sheffield lass certainly has "the right stuff" wrt cycling enthusiasm but as welsh dragon says,this initiative is not likely to be the primary concern of many parents.

I recollect,at the age of 7,telling my mother that I was riding to the shop (approx 5 mins away) with David Gadd.
We chose to take a diversion to Crewe on the return journey(We lived in Stoke-on -Trent).One of those impulsive ideas that naive youngsters are prone to.
We returned home to find a search for us in progress involving neighbours & police.The local hospitals had been asked if we had been admitted & my mother appeared to have visibly aged.She was in a right 2&8.
Got abitofabo$$ocking for that.

ETA we had been absent for approx 14hrs when arrived back home

 

[steveindenmark]

Welsh Dragon, I understand what you are saying, but those things have always been around. Look at the moors murderers. We are more aware of them now because news is far more freely available, but they are still rare occurrences. When it happens on your doorstep, like it did to you. It must make it feel as though it is all around. In reality it isn't.

 

[welsh dragon]

Welsh Dragon, I understand what you are saying, but those things have always been around. Look at the moors murderers. We are more aware of them now because news is far more freely available, but they are still rare occurrences. When it happens on your doorstep, like it did to you. It must make it feel as though it is all around. In reality it isn't.

I think you and I will have to agree to disagree. Merry christmas and a happy new year to you.

 

[coffeejo]

In the overwhelming majority of abuse cases, the perpetrator is someone related to or known by the victim. So how far you are from your own doorstep is largely irrelevant.

Good on the girl, is all I can say - keep pedalling.

 

[Ganymede]

Children are good at finding their way about if you give them a chance. Try it with your own, it can be funny. Don't try it with the wife though, it doesn't work.

Don't quite get this - why doesn't it work with your wife present?

 

[winjim]

Don't quite get this - why doesn't it work with your wife present?

I don't know - I mean wherever I leave my wife she always manages to find her way home eventually...

 

[steveindenmark]

Don't quite get this - why doesn't it work with your wife present?

I meant if the kids are not present and you try to get the wife to navigate.


Steve

 

[BrumJim]

As someone who isn't her parent, I say "Congratulations".

However, I am a parent, and the thought of my son doing this makes me break out into cold sweat. And I'm not a particularly over-protective type of parent either. As noted above, its not just 'stranger danger' this is the problem. Although she did the entire route on pavements, there is traffic danger, plus bigger kids or the chance of having the bike stolen off her. Fortunately she is OK this time, but her parents don't want her to do that again.

Merry Christmas, and if you are buying your child a bike, may I suggest getting a tracker like on Spooks as well?