Oooh, is it time to talk about first falls caused by clipless pedals?

I had just brought home my first-ever mountain bike. Actually, not home, but at my aunt's house, which had mini-gravel (foreshadowing) along the sides of the driveway. I was going to use DH, then DBF's, old gloves, but they were in the house and I didn't want to have to take off my shoes, go inside to get them, and come back out and put the shoes on again. (Good thing the helmet was with me, anyway!). So ... how hard could it be, right? I got on the bike, pedaled a few strokes in the driveway, braked to a stop ... and ... well, completely forgot about being attached to the bike. I dunno, it just didn't process, I didn't have any kind of balance, I just ... tipped over. Hand first into the gravel. Which I carried with me in the palm of my hand, just below the skin, for several years before it finally broke down enough to be carried away by my bloodstream.

Adding insult to injury, later that day I rode my first MTB trail. I was the last person in the group (I wanted to be last so they wouldn't see me -- pure foolishness that they shouldn't have allowed, in retrospect). Long story short, I ended up hanging head-first in a creekbed, attached to the bike, unable to get up because that would have required putting weight on my hand, and it hurt too much from the earlier fall. I figured eventually they'd notice I was missing and come back for me. I was correct.

On the plus side, I absolutely never ride anywhere without gloves now ...

I just got my first road bike, and as BeeLady mentions, I'm finding it's handy to choose a foot. My left foot is my "chocolate" foot, the one I most like to start with, so I unclip my right foot before stops, and actually never unclip my left foot. I reverse-pedal it into a good starting position. This way I only have to worry about clipping in with one foot when I get started. Note -- I've been riding clipless on mountain bikes for several years, so this may not be a great tactic for someone absolutely starting on clipless.

Other options -- you may want to find out if your pedals have adjustable tension. If they do, you may be able to loosen them considerably, making it much easier to get in and out. For some reason, shops often don't do this or even mention it when you're buying a bike.

Finally, if clipless pedals really freak you out -- it's okay to go without them. Honest. I rode my mountain bike for a few months with clipless, then realized that I was spending way too much time before every obstacle trying to decide if I should clip in or out, with the ultimate result that I would slow down and end up not even trying the obstacle. So I bought flats with "traction pins" (aka the pointy side of screws sticking out of the pedal for traction and flaying-of-skin) and used those for a while. They gave me some confidence, until eventually I found that I really missed being able to pull the pedal up as well as push down, and I really missed being attached to the bike when rattling down a hill. So I switched back to clipless, and by then they were just right for me.