Letting go of the training wheels

Recently a friend gave us a new bike. It was suppose to be for Ian who has out grown his tricycle but it was bigger than Brett's bike. So the bike became Brett's new bike. His old bike had training wheels on it though he didn't really use them anymore. We thought what a great time for Brett to learn to ride without the extra wheels. But when we took him to the park to try he was too worried about falling over even though I was holding the back of the bike. He begged for training wheels to be put on. After putting the wheels on we realized they were too short and didn't even touch the ground. He desperately wanted to try out his new bike and we headed out to the parking lot where he took off like a bullet and never touched the training wheels to the ground. He was so scared of trying it without the wheels but really they just gave him the "safety" he needed to boost his confidence and take off riding. It made me wonder how many times I've needed some type of training wheels to get my confidence up just to realize I wasn't using the wheels at all.