Ace Gets A Bicycle

Generally speaking, Ace is a little more careful and dislikes falling and pain.

So whenever Max tried to bring up the subject of getting him to learn how to ride a bike, his response is always "NO.."

But the power of peer pressure is great once you approach your teens I guess...

It started with Ace always coming home from tuition drenched in sweat. He will explain that his classmate rode a bike to class and rode the bike home and he was trying to keep up by running alongside her.

Yes, it is a HER:) Hahahahahaha.... But please dun think too much or read too deep into it... (It is the tuition classmate who told him his mother looks very young and pretty.. hahahaha)

Because she looked like she is having so much fun, Ace started to think about possibly learning to ride a bike some day.

Fast forward to a month later, he was having a conversation with his classmates in school and they realized that Ace is the only one in his entire class who does not know how to ride and so many of them encouraged him to learn and even offered to teach him how to ride a bike.

So Ace came to me and asked if he could learn how to ride a bike. I told him to talk to his dad since I don't know how to ride one. So Ace went to request from his dad.

As a result of this request, his dad went online to do research... and this is the result of the research...

His dad bought him a bicycle! And he was sooooooooooo happy. Then they went out to decathlon to buy other accesories like the lights, bell and even a pump for the tires.

But his dad did not have time to bring him out to teach him how to ride a bike.

Perhaps Ace was just too bored to be on his own... and now that he has unlimited access to youtube and mobile games, even THAT felt boring... so hor, while we were both out at work, our good friend brought the bike downstairs to try to ride on his own.

As he stayed on the bike longer and longer, he actually even felt confident enough to try to ride the bike 1 kilometre away to buy dinner for himself! (Actually he cycled 3 kilometres.. halfway he realized he forgot to bring money and cycled home again to get money).

I must say I was pretty surprised that he made this decision given that he is not much adventurous most of the time.

And that trip what a turning point for him. Thank goodness he took a risk and decided to try cycling to buy dinner. Cos by that time, he said he could only stay on the bike for maybe 6 minutes. During his trip to get dinner, an uncle saw him riding the bike and wobbling along. So the kind hearted uncle shouted out to him... "Hold your handle bars tight and look straight! Hold your handle bars tight and look straight!"

And once he followed uncle's instructions, he was actually able to ride all the way home without stopping! And he was soooooooooooo happy!

"Now, I only left dunno how to make turns.." he says.

I am happy he self taught himself how to ride a bike with the help of friends and strangers. For a few weeks, that became his favourite thing to do. Whenver he is bored at home, he will take the bike out to ride around.

Max says the power of peer pressure is really great :) On our own, we would never have gotten Ace to AGREE to learn to ride a bike, much less take the initiative to learn how to ride it by himself when he was just presented with the bike.

I must say I was a little worried that he will go ride on roads with cars and what not.. But I remembered also that worrying is negative manifestation and so, this was also a lesson for me to trust my son to know that he is grown up, more independent and will be able to take good care of himself.

My son as grown up indeed! Very proud of you for your achievement, Ace! Many thanks to his friends for nudging him along this path and encouraging him along!

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