The Bikeriding on a Busy Street Debate
It’s a gorgeous spring day here in southern Oregon, and, after we finished with homeschool, Nigel wanted to ride his bike, alone, to a store a mile and a half away on a busy street. I blanched at the thought.
As I have mentioned before, I feel semi-comfortable with him riding alone around the suburban neighborhood in which we live. I know, I know. He’s thirteen years old, for God’s sake. Let the kid ride his bike. But this particular thirteen-year-old kid, even though he can talk now, still has sensory issues which can compromise his safety (and possibly the safety of others). What happens if a commercial truck drives right next to him and the rumbling (roaring, to him) of it jars him enough to make him wobble, hit the curb, and fall into the path of the truck? Or, if he appears to not be paying attention, the driver of the truck, or any vehicle, could sound their loud horn to alert him, and it would startle him enough to make him lose control of his bike and veer into traffic.
Then there are the flying insects. At any time while walking, if any flying insect, from a tiny gnat to a huge moth, happens to come near Nigel, he immediately begins violently shaking his head, flinging his arms around, and running away. This cannot happen on a bike on a busy street.
So I talked to Nigel about my truck concerns, about holding his line so that he does not wobble too close to traffic (”I hold my line,” he said in his deadpan voice), and about insects flying in his face. That sobered him for a moment, and I could see the wheels turning. Then he said, “We just need to extinguish bees with stingers. Or make flightless bees.” Flightless bees. Time to do a homeschool unit on pollination.
In the end I realized that, safety concerns aside, I have to get him a bike lock before he can ride his bike to the store anyway. So I’ve successfully put off the bikeriding-on-a-busy-street milestone for another day.
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on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Homeschooling, Milestones, Nigelisms.
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4 Responses to “The Bikeriding on a Busy Street Debate”
April 21st, 2009 at 3:31 pm
[...] Nigel’s fear of bees and other flying insects. Notice the long-sleeved shirt and jeans even on the warm [...]
September 6th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
[...] despite past reactions to insects flying in his face, he wants to do this. And I need to let him. He has a fiercely independent spirit, which I think [...]
October 1st, 2009 at 8:27 pm
[...] my autistic teen has been asking me to let him ride his bike to the local grocery store alone. And for many reasons, I kept putting it off. I just didn’t feel that he was ready. Now, since he recently started [...]
February 11th, 2010 at 12:18 am
[...] I hear that door open and shut, I breathe a sigh of relief. The route is less than two miles, but any number of things could go wrong. Once, a few months ago, he had been delayed due to bike problems and called me on his cell to ask [...]
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