A while back I was wandering aimlessly around Sam’s Club when I came across an item from my childhood. Sitting on the floor, sleek and stylish, was a brand new Big Wheel. For those of you who did not experience the Big Wheel, it is a bicycle-type device with a big wheel in front and two small wheels in the back. The seat is low to the ground and two pedals attached to the big wheel power the device. I enjoyed many a day spent on the Big Wheel. I stood there thinking how my son needed one of these wonderful devices of childhood.

As I was looking at it, I began to wonder why they even bothered putting the pedals on it. As anyone who has owned a Big Wheel can testify, the pedals are rarely, if ever, used. Most of the time spent with a Big Wheel was spent climbing hills. At the peak of the hill the user was positioned in the seat and released screaming, out-of-control down the hill. If the Big Wheel did not flip over due to inept driving, the ride was one of extreme adrenaline. The pedals were ignored. In fact, they got in the way. If you tried to put your feet on the pedals it would only serve to slow you down or tangle your legs in the front wheel and send you and the Big Wheel tumbling into a nearby tree or ditch.

I am much older now than I was when I enjoyed the Big Wheel. I would like to think that I am also smarter now- as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t even try to sit in the thing. For those of you without an imagination, that sight would have been atrocious, believe me. (Imagine a large man wearing a hard plastic diaper in the shape of a motorcycle with a giant wheel in front and two small wheels plunged into his buttocks. Not pretty.)

I will also assume that it was this newfound knowledge that shared to me the answer to my mystery- The pedals are there for parents. Not that parents would ever ride these things, (Refer the mental picture provided above.) but the pedals allows parents to delude themselves into thinking that children will ride them the way the box shows them: cheerfully pedaling along on the sidewalk at a nice, safe pace. It is this delusion that allows the parent to make the purchase while still possessing the knowledge of how the device will actually be used.