The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard. ~ S. Wilson
On Sunday, we headed to the beach to enjoy a nice fall day — crisp and clear and just what we needed to keep the spirits alive as we stare down the long winter. Funny thing about the winter is that, in a staring contest, the winter never really blinks. We always end up conceding and retreating.
At any rate, we brought Kristian’s little two-wheeler — a Raleigh step-thru with a cargo rack and full fenders, no less. He is three and had been eagerly awaiting the day he could ride on his own. As a dad, I had been, too. Until Sunday, and even on the way to the beach, I had been jamming a broom stick into the cargo rack, and I would hold it to keep him upright as he swerved around and we both laughed. Occasionally he would take a hard turn, and the back wheel would kick out, and he would say something like, ‘nah, det var sejt’ which means, ‘wooh, that was cool’ — he still speaks primarily Danish.
But when we got to the beach, the stick broke, and he just wanted to ride. So we took the next step — me running beside him and holding his back to keep him steady. Almost immediately, I realized this was, in fact, going to be a lot easier than I had expected. Physically, it made sense. On a bike, you instinctually auto-correct yourself so that you stay upright — even a three-year-old can do it without thinking. And because he had previously had the stick as a safety net, sometimes that overpowered the instinct resulting in spin outs and topples.
Realizing this, the next issue became the one which the opening quote alludes to — it’s the mental side of the equation; the letting go. I consider myself pretty under-protective (is that even a word? –the opposite of overprotective) — and Dorthe (my wife) would probably agree with that (rolling her eyes and probably inserting a ‘very’ in front of under-protective). But the bike ride metaphor holds true in every way — even for someone like me. I ran alongside Kristian knowing that he was capable of doing this on his own, but continually wanting to offer support even if it might not have been in the best interest of his learning to ride the bike.
The ride you see in this video might not be the all that impressive — though yesterday he rode all the way to the grocery store! — but we were still so proud and impressed with him. He was pretty proud of himself, too. In fact, when he stepped off the bike after the first few solo rides, he proudly proclaimed, ‘Jeg er en cykel rytter!’ — ‘I am a bike rider!’
Welcome to the club buddy — it’s lifetime membership and it only gets better from here…
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Posted on: Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 at 2:58 am
Posted in: news
Tags: copenhagen, first ride, kristian, video