I was thinking about that when I was dropping my 6 year old off at some hobbies earlier - it’s pretty much expected to have learned how to ride a bicycle before starting school, and it massively expands the area you can go to by yourself. When she went to school by bicycle she can easily make a detour via a shop to spend some pocket money before coming home, while by foot that’d be rather time consuming.

Quite a lot of friends from outside of Europe either can’t ride a bicycle, or were learning it as adult after moving here, though.

edit: the high number of replies mentioning “swimming” made me realize that I had that filed as a basic skill pretty much everybody has - probably due to swimming lessons being a mandatory part of school education here.

  • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I mean, that is perhaps a part of my situation. It’s something that fluctuates as to whether it’s on anyone’s mind or not. I wish it was a factor nobody had to partake in. It’s painfully pervasive though.