This Is Hard To Believe......

[yoothgeye]

I have a girl in my youth group, fell off a bike once when learning to ride (which she never did), will never get on one again, she's nearing 15 now and makes me sad.

Kids are overwhelmed with TV, videos, video games, computers, phones, etc... nowdays. Some days I have to make my kids go out and play, but after a couple minutes, they don't wanna come back inside.

Taught my daughter to ride her bike last year at 6 years, now my 4 year old son is balancing on his balance bike and will ride without training wheels before the summer ends. I hope to teach my youngest one to be riding before she's 3.

There is something we can do about. Find a kid that can't ride or doesn't have a bike and get them a bike or teach them to ride!

 

[Chainsaw]

Uncle Stretch said it perfectly. We are made more aware of what's happening now than ever before. It may seem (and possibly is) that more of the bad things are happening but we've also got to realize that there are cities that have larger populations than most states did back in the 60s! I wonder if percentage wise things have really gotten worse or possibly better.

Please don't blame the internet, magazines or television for what the kids are seeing or hearing. Blame the adults who are allowing this! Parents need to pay WAY more attention to what they ARE doing and how they ARE acting in front of their kids! If parents would keep better tabs on their kids and be responsible for their actions, things would be safer for all of us!

As far as the actual "learning to ride a bike" thing.. A lot of this, I think, is because parents are working more than they use to and don't have the time that it takes to teach their kids to ride. Now throw in the fact that many parents are willing to toss money at their kids just to get rid of them for a few hours. The kids have money so they go and hang out at malls or shopping centers or worse. And it seems that all ages of kids know someone with a car to get them places! When they don't have the money, the kids would rather play videos or use their cell phones. The imaginations of today's kids seem to be limited to what they see on t.v. or in video games.

I grew up in the 60s/70s and there were plenty of kids (boys and girls) that never learned to ride a bike, just like there were plenty of kids who never learned to play sports or swim (my dad taught swimming, but I had no interest in it, so I never really learned to swim).

It is unusual to us that ride bikes but not to those who don't. I'm a country boy and I grew up knowing how to milk a cow. It's second nature to me, but how many on this board know how? It's the same as riding a bike (well, not really :lol: )!

 

[blackdiamond]

Wish the world could live in my neiborhood.
Transportation: Bicycles.
Work: summer yard cuttin'

And you can go any where there is no fence. When riding an old bike you would think it was the 1960s. And most of the people drive old cars!
(i was passed a few days ago by a '58 chevy impala, and a koreanwar-era willis jeep 8) )

Don't you wish the world had more small towns, where everyone can rome free without modern problems.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Wish the world could live in my neiborhood.
Transportation: Bicycles.
Work: summer yard cuttin'

And you can go any where there is no fence. When riding an old bike you would think it was the 1960s. And most of the people drive old cars!
(i was passed a few days ago by a '58 chevy impala, and a koreanwar-era willis jeep 8) )

Don't you wish the world had more small towns, where everyone can rome free without modern problems.

Must be nice, here in Kokomo, Indiana we are swarmed by sickos, perverts, and people who never learned to drive but have a license anyway, makes it dangerous to even ride a bike. I was out at walmart the other day with my girlfriend and this ..... goes speeding at least 45mph crossing the lanes of parking to avoid the stop signs and nearly hit her car! Man I wish I still had my old '66 International pickup. I'd have let the dumb blonde total her new foreign car on my old American-made heavy gauge steel fender. :mrgreen: What is with people now-days? :roll:

 

[American Vintage Bicycle Supply]

I know how this is. My sister and my cousin both don't know how to ride a bike. My sister being 7 and my cousin 16...How could you come from a bike friendly family and not know how to ride. :roll: