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.

  • Punkie@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 year ago

    One of my friends is 33 and she and her older sister can’t swim. They grew up on a rural farm far away from any body of water. “Where would we have learned or practiced?” Over the years, I have learned that a lot of people in the US cannot swim, especially when they were poor as kids, even in major cities near water.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
      2·
      1 year ago

      One of my friends is 33 and she and her older sister can’t swim. They grew up on a rural farm far away from any body of water.

      Gen-X. Lived near a lake or ocean 80% of my life. Grew up poor. Swimming lessons were a costly luxury that didn’t make the budget. Ever.

    • Ilflish@lemm.ee
      1·
      1 year ago

      Ever indoor pool I’ve gone to in the UK has offered Swimming lessons. Not having natural bodies of water isn’t a great excuse for basic swimming. Seems to just be a culture difference since everyone I know had lessons at an indoor pool as kids