When Michael Natividad learned to ride a bike at 7 or 8 years old, he knew his training wheels were ready to come off when he leaned on them while zipping around corners.
His daughter, on the other hand, was barely 3 when she sped away from him on her tiny bicycle, he said, admitting to feeling a bit robbed of a special moment.
“I kept thinking of that opportunity holding her up, but I did it for all of maybe one minute,” said Natividad, of Rohnert Park, California. “I was looking forward to that for three years.”
A big difference was that Loralani, now 4, never used training wheels. Instead, like an increasing number of children, she had learned to ride a balance bike first, at around 2.