As some of you know, my daughter Amanda will turn 6 years old on June 1st. My mother wants to buy her a bike and told me since she didn’t learn yet how to ride a regular bike, we should buy her one with training wheels that can come off when she learns. My response? Not! Amanda already has an older bike with training wheels. If she really wants the comfort of training wheels, she can ride the old bike. If she really wants to ride her new bike, she will be motivated to learn how to ride it.

If you are trying to lift someone’s skill level, don’t provide the new skills with the safety lines of the old skill set. All that will do is remove the motivation and need to learn something new. After all, we are all creatures of habit and tend to revert back to our comfort zones if we are not being forced to do something new.

Now don’t get me wrong. You do need to provide a safe environment. You can bet I will be running along Amanda’s side (probably for years being the protector I am) making sure she doesn’t take a nasty spill. But there is no way she is going to get a new bike without learning how to ride it without training wheels. It just doesn’t make sense.