Where did you learn how to ride a bike?

Our son, aged 7, recently learned how to ride his bike sans training wheels. We had tried raising the training wheels up a little some months ago, but he has not ridden much in the last couple of months. The other day he decided he wanted to try riding without training wheels. We first tried raising them a bit more so he could try learning to balance, but still have the ‘safety’ of the training wheels to catch him. Within a few minutes he was riding all around on only the two main wheels, so off came the training wheels. It was literally minutes until he was riding all over on his two-wheeled bike, with a joy that knew no bounds. Incredible, really. It was like he simply decided that it was time, and knew he could do it.

However, this whole process made me realize one thing that was fundamentally different about my son’s bike riding learning process than most. Certainly different than my own. The big difference? He learned all of this on the roof of our house/apartment building, six floors up.

Now, before you freak out at the imminent danger we placed our son in while letting him ride on the roof of a 6 story building, let me clarify. We live in south Asia, where most buildings are made of cement and brick, and have flat roofs. Our apartment building has this, and the half of the building across from our apartment is known as a terrace. It is quite wide open and smooth and flat. And there is no animal or other traffic to contend with while learning to ride.

So, where did you learn how to ride a bike? On the top of a 6 story apartment building? I bet not. This is one of the many, many things we love about living here.