The Time Will Come

By Conrad Ho

We bought a bicycle for Yat at his request when he was about three years old. He dared not ride on it, though, for he did not know how to balance it yet. Two little side wheels on both sides of the hind wheel were added to stabilize the bicycle. From then on, Yat was a proud biker. Saikung town seaside park, Taipo dam, and Shatin river bike trail were his favourite spots to show off.

Several months before he turned five, he had grown oversized compared to the bike. We thought it was time for him to learn how to ride a two-wheeled bike. He fiercely defended his four-wheeled bicycle, repeatedly saying he would fall without the side wheels. A few weeks of trying to convince him went down the drain and we quit.

A few weeks before he turned five, he begged us for the removal of the side wheels. Of course, I did it right away, in delight. The first day he rode on the truly two-wheeled bicycle, he spent about 1.5 hours on it, according to my maid. That evening, he called us in the office, in a particularly high-pitched tone. He was really excited to tell us that he had learnt to balance on a bicycle. “He could ride his bicycle? Just after 1.5 hours?!?amp;nbsp; We thought in disbelief.

That night after dinner, Yat pulled Conrad down to the playground to demonstrate his new skill. To his shock, Yat really could ride on the bicycle for short distances, albeit not too stable, which was pardonable for sure, given the short learning time. On the fourth day, he could already rode the whole 1.5 kilometers from Saikung town centre to Sai Sha Beach along the seaside park in a stable and smooth manner. What a feat!

This story brings home the basic philosophy we have adopted to raise our kids. Trust the natural developmental process. The time will come when something will happen on its own accord. Just stay alert, do the appropriate thing and follow the flow. Active intervention out of context will bring no good, if not chaos or slower development.

Readers may wonder what the trigger point was that prompted Yat to decide to learn to ride a two-wheeled bike. One night he met a neighbour boy about his age who challenged Yat for a race. Yat was decidedly defeated, of course, because the boy’s bicycle was two-wheeled, bigger and so faster. After his triumph, the boy repeatedly yelled out that a two-wheeled bicycle had to win over a four-wheeled bicycle. From then on, Yat has insisted that he wanted to ride a two-wheeled bike. See! The time will come.