Learning to scoot is all very well, but what’s the point if you can’t ring your own bell? | Séamas O’Reilly

Since failing to instil a love of wheels in our son, we have stepped up with our daughter’s tutelage

Our two-year-old daughter mounts the scooter. She places one unsteady foot in front of the other on its central board. An initial attempt at balance is rebuffed as gravity asserts itself and she yelps as the scooter leaves her feet, throwing her backwards. Her helmet, pink and cream, remains in place. Miraculously, there are no tears. Undaunted, our little Boudicca rights her chariot and repeats.

We’re in our local park, giving her – and us – a crash course in resilience. It is nail-biting. We bought her the thing in the hope we’d avoid the mess we made of her brother’s tutelage. He never warmed to the various scooters and bikes we’ve inherited from his older cousins and which now languish, substantially cobwebbed, in our shed. He showed no interest in using them, and we didn’t insist, due to the fact we weren’t particularly keen on equipping him with a vehicle that could wallop him into the path of cars at 20mph and, if we’re honest, pure old-fashioned laziness.

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Learning to scoot is all very well, but what’s the point if you can’t ring your own bell? | Séamas O’Reilly

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