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.

  • funkajunkEnglish
    54·
    10 months ago

    I grew up in rural Canada, but have been living in major metropolitan areas for most of my adult life. It still surprises me when I learn there are other adults that don’t know how to chop wood, start a fire, work basic tools, etc.

    • FleaCatcher@lemmy.world
      131·
      10 months ago

      Are chopping wood and starting a fire common activities in the metropolitan area where you live?

      • funkajunkEnglish
        6·
        10 months ago

        Going to the beach or camping, not unusual to start a bonfire.

      • Taringano
        2·
        10 months ago

        Suburbia I’m canda just mean the great outdoors

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
      51·
      10 months ago

      I have no earthly idea how to do those things and I’m from Canada. It’s also a gender thing if you’re older like me.