Kiss My Knits!

We got a bike for Em last year and she’s still not proficient at it. This is our fault, for not seizing the momentum gained from the excitement of first purchasing the bike. We debated a lot about the best method to use, when perhaps we should have picked something and gone with it, even if it weren’t the best way.

It’s not all us, though, as Em wants to know how to do everything, but she doesn’t want to do the work to actually learn how to do everything. Well, this is summer, and she wants to know how to do these things, and by God she’s going to learn how to ride a bike this week if it kills me. Which it may.

Part of our problem is that we can’t practice in our driveway. It rolls directly onto Tyvola Road, a major thoroughfare. We have to take the bike somewhere else to practice. This is also a problem, because children are required to ride in the back seat of a car, and my car is not big enough to hold her in the back seat and the bike. However, across Tyvola Road is the Marion Diehl center, which recently installed a running track. This isn’t the nice soft red stuff, it’s asphalt, so we can ride on it without worrying about tearing it up.

I stuffed some wound-wash and bandaids into my pockets, just in case, and we walked over this morning and rode. Mama’s little underachiever promptly started negotiating. “Let’s just ride three times.” I wanted to go for a set time but I don’t own a watch, so we negotiated to eight good stretches of riding. Only once did she deliberately try to ride for a few feet and then stop. I told her nicely that that wasn’t going to fly, and she put her all into it again.

We made it 3/4 of the way around the quarter-mile track. Then she felt like she was done. I opted not to push it. We’re going back tomorrow and going all the way around the track.

It was 80 degrees and it was hard work holding that seat and awkwardly running behind her while crouching. I was panting and sweating, which I think made her feel like she was working harder than she actually was, because she said she was tired when she looked just fine to me. We went back home for water and orange slices. We’ll give it another go tomorrow, and we’ll try to go all the way around the track. Em is on board with this. We’ll work up from there.

I get that it’s hot and she doesn’t want to go out. I don’t want to either. But I know she’ll feel a sense of accomplishment once she’s able to do this, and I want to give that to her. Even if I have to push her down that road a little.