Family Cycling
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If you’ve got a puritanical streak, insisting every single journey has to be by bike to ‘save the planet’, don’t be too surprised when your kid grows up desiring a gas-guzzler and the beer gut to go with it. If you’re successful in – gently – passing your love of cycling to the next generation, you’re doing them a big healthy favour. Cycling ought to be habitual. No need to move to the Netherlands, just treat cycling as an ordinary, perfectly normal thing to do. If your kids aren’t old enough to pedal by themselves, there are loads of options for bringing them along for the ride – from childseats to trailers. A cycle-crazy teen might not want to be seen cycling with parents, but at least the activity can help maintain some common ground that would otherwise be lost a lot earlier. And when they do get to that rebellious stage, you’ll still be fit enough – just – to challenge them to a race. Cycling is a balancing act, a mode of transport, a tool for exploratory play, and a form of exercise, all in the same eco-friendly package. Pumping those pedals is good for the heart, yet it’s not a treadmill. For kids, learning to ride a bike is an important rite of passage. A bike is independent transport for a child, passenger no longer. A bike is wings. Cycling extends children’s geographical mind-maps. Trips that would be boring to walk, or too far, are simple to cycle. Self-propelled children know their local area far, far better than children carted everywhere by car. Selfpropelled children are also more in tune with the seasons. My three kids cycle to school in all weathers. At their insistence. Sometimes they get wet. When it snows, their hands get cold, their faces ruddy. To drive to school on a beautiful summer morning would be sacrilege. To not be able to stop by the horse-chestnut tree on an autumnal ride back from school, going bonkers over conkers, would be unthinkable. In a car, kids miss out on so much. Children ferried places in a realitydistorting bubble look glum. Kids in cars are making no decisions for