Canberra-based writer and host of Alex the Seal podcast, Jo Pybus, offers sage advice for parents facing the daunting task of choosing gifts for children this Christmas.

I have sympathy for young parents balancing the desires of their little ones at Christmas against budgets and sensibilities. Manufacturers continue to innovate and there seems to be no end to the offerings a parent can put under the Christmas Tree, so vast in fact that the humble toy shop that once took up as much retail space as a bookstore, today resembles a plane hangar.

Let me take you back to Christmas past when I was a little girl. This was the 1970s and the big-ticket items were a bike or a Baby Alive doll. When I was eight years old, I banged on and on about getting a bike. The magic machine I coveted was a Malvern Star Dragstar. It had a floral banana seat with a sissy bar so I could double-dink a friend, and we could go further and faster than ever before.

This bike meant everything to me. It got me home from school each day in plenty of time to watch The Curiosity Show. Even going to the shops to buy milk and mum’s Winnie Reds was no longer a chore as the basket hanging from the ape-grip handlebars was made for the task.

When I became a parent myself, I longed for the simplicity of the days of my youth as my own children were clamouring for Tamagotchis, Bop Its, and PlayStations. The financial anxiety experienced by the Cratchits in Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ was replaced by a new malady: status anxiety – wanting what others have.

In recent years, I’ve noticed cycling is having a resurgence amongst pre-schoolers with an innovation so simple that I wasn’t surprised to find out it was invented in the 1800’s. Behold the Balance Bike, a bike without pedals that I’ve seen kids in nappies riding, zooming along on these two-wheelers with their feet on the ground. With no training wheels, these toddlers can learn balance before pedalling.

One explanation for these Balance Bikes not coming into my purview as a child, or parent in the noughties, was that parents were looking for future-proofed gifts. That’s why your new pyjamas would be a size too big, and your bike would need the seat dropped to the lowest position along with training wheels that could be removed.

So, even though your child will need two bikes before they start school, I encourage you to jump onto this Balance Bike trend because God only knows we don’t want our kids doing less physical activity, and the skill of cycling is likely to outlast the skill of driving as autonomous cars are in their future. 

With the risk of sounding like the Ghost of Christmas Future, can I suggest you don’t get too carried away, however, and forget those sensibilities with another innovation in cycling, e-bikes. I’m a keen cyclist and have a number of bikes, one of which is an e-bike for bike touring where I can carry far more luggage than the front basket of my childhood Dragstar. There is a place for e-bikes, and it is wonderful to see adults who haven’t ridden in years and people with physical limitations out riding. Kids, however, do not need e-bikes.

That red-faced kid who puffs and pants having just ridden home from their friend’s house is growing bones, and building muscle, and understanding what their physical body is capable of. An e-bike is going to dampen that connection and joy.

And if you think I’m being a Grinch, then best you don’t do an internet search for electric Balance Bikes. These tiny bikes are marketed for kids as young as two as a segue to their first motorbike. This shiny new bauble is going to be dangled in front of every parent thinking somehow a rechargeable battery makes every gift better. Do we really need a three-year-old learning throttle control and travelling at 18kmph?

I cannot imagine there is a pre-schooler out there who has asked Santa Claus for an e-bike this year. They haven’t been spoilt by a world of FOMO and are heavily invested in whatever their parents choose for them. Mums and Dads, don’t let the pressure of others cloud your judgement when sharing your love for your kids this Christmas.

Those little cherubs have a lifetime ahead of them to use labour saving devices, many of which haven’t been invented yet. I’m not suggesting we go back to a time we sent kids down coal mines, but this is a Christmas tale warning of the consequences of gifting them something for the wrong reasons, and that you have to recharge.

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