# Should my 8 year old son bike to baseball practice? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 5, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-my-8-year-old-son-bike-to-baseball-practice/614786 "2012-03-05T04:47:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-my-8-year-old-son-bike-to-baseball-practice/614786/21 "2012-03-05T18:39:52Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > Of course the first day I will drive him just to make sure he is comfortable, and the next day I will bike with him I would say bike with him two or three times, if you can. Bike instead of drive that first day if that’s what it takes to be able to do this more than once. The reason I am urging this is twofold: first, so you can get a good feel for how safe (or problematic) the route is at the time of day he’s going to be riding it. (And I don’t think once is enough: you can get fluky days in terms of traffic, or simply find it easier to ignore whatever problems you do come across because you’ve only experienced them once.) And second, so you can get a good read on how **he** is reacting to the road crossings, whether he feels nervous or threatened by them, or whether he’s taking them in stride. Once you do this ride with him a few times, and see it as he’ll experience, and see how he reacts to it, you’ll know how comfortable _you_ are with letting him ride this route, and you’ll be prepared to make your own call on whether he can handle this himself, or whether you need to keep on chauffeuring him. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-my-8-year-old-son-bike-to-baseball-practice/614786/22 "2012-03-05T19:43:15Z")
When I started playing Little League ball, my mom drove me to the practice park twice. After that, it was bike time unless it rained. I vote in favor of the bike. It’s a real good way to take your son through the beginning steps of responsibility. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-my-8-year-old-son-bike-to-baseball-practice/614786/23 "2012-03-06T00:50:56Z")
Is there another parent in the picture? If so definitely get their input on this situation, how they feel is 1000x more important than what a bunch of people on the internet say. That said, someone suggested having one of your older kids accompany him, and I’d say that would be a good compromise (assuming any of your older kids are reasonably responsible). If none of them want to, offer them some sort of reward at the end of the season if youngest kid remains safe. After all, they’re freeing you up from that schlepping that you don’t like doing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-my-8-year-old-son-bike-to-baseball-practice/614786.md?page=1)