Smiling Biker

So there are moments as a parent when you don't get to be a really nice person. It is ok in some ways because you know it is for their own good. I always feel though that other people are looking at me in judgement. It is usually people with hypothetical children. You know the ones who don't actually have their own children, but like to have strong opinions about how they would parent them if they did. The thing about real children is they have really wonderful qualities and qualities that are, shall we say, a little more challenging. Now Chloe for example is an extremely smart, artistic, and creative kid. She stuggles immensely with things of a physical nature. Her struggles do not come quietly either. They come with loud protests and dramatic flailing. Everything from pumping a swing and pedaling a bike to cutting with scissors has come with  a lot of arguing, dramatics, and tears. It is the process that we go through. It is draining, but at this point in the process I just know to stick it out long enough and she will be whizzing through the task like an old pro.

Last year I bought Chloe a bigger bike. She is tall for her age and had really out grown the other one she had. The problem being that the new bike did not have training wheels. I bought some training wheels at the store and attempted to install them. I seem to be incapable of installing them correctly. I couldn't, for the life of me, get those things on tight enough that they wouldn't slide backwards. I spent a fair amount of time trying to teach Chloe to ride the bike on two wheels last summer, but I gave up. There comes a point where you just throw the towel in and call it a day. Between her lack of coordination and anxieties of falling off my upper body was taking quite a beating from her grabing me every time the bike wobbled.

As summer approached this year I decided to ask for some help. I asked my friend Pat from work if her husband could help me put the training wheels on correctly. I figured that someone with two grown children had experience in installing these items. Well boy did I ask the right person. Tom came over and picked the bike up one day while I was at work. He took the bike to his garage and installed new training wheels for me. It turned out he had a brand new pair of much better training wheels that his own daughter (now 21)never needed. Check out these babies...

Well even with these training wheels attached Chloe has still stubbornly refused to ride. "It still wobbles." She would then proceed to throw herself onto the ground and shout, "See!" Today I had had enough. Alexa loves to ride her bike and with just one parent you have to have both kids with you. It is impossible for me to be outside with one kid and inside with another. So today I announced it was not optional. She was riding. Well she yelled, threatened, and stormed around. I matched her word for word. I told her she was riding until she rode without complaining. We headed over to a nearby park where there is a safe loop for the kids to ride. It took about eight loops before Chloe, forgetting that she was planning to be miserable, started zooming around ahead of everyone. Which meant that I could quit sounding like a heartless drill sergeant and could hug and cheer for her.

We headed back home to get some water and she looked like this...

I guess there is some luxury in knowing the process that she goes through to learn new things, but it is extremely draining.