Sometimes I feel like come up a little short in my fathering. Case in point - Carter is almost 4 years old and he still doesn't have a clue how to use pedals on a bike (or tricycle in his case). This clearly falls under the responsibility of the father... To try to improve my performance, I decided that I would work with him this weekend on using the pedals.
I started out early in the week, discussing riding a bike like the big kids. You see, Carter, like one of his other siblings, is very stubborn. If it is not his idea - it is not going to happen. So I talked it up a little ("wouldn't it be cool to ride your bike like the other kids") until he wanted to try riding his bike and he asked me to help him.
His bike is a combo hand-me-down. It is mostly Kyle's old bike, but it has Emily's old tire on the back and a pair of one-size-fits-all training wheels from Wal-Mart on the back. It looks a little funny, but it draws a little attention away from his awful helmet. Before you criticize, we bought him a new helmet, but the glue on the padding inside the helmet stuck to his hair, and he refuses to wear it...
Anyway, back to his short biking career:
After very little practice, he is starting to feel confident in his abilities:
He seemed to be getting the hang of it. Look how fast he is cruising by. It takes a lot of bike skill to go this fast. Should we warn him about the 90 degree turn coming up? I'm sure he knows about it...
I guess just because you can go fast, doesn't mean you have the skills for it.
When asked what happened, Carter astutely answers: "I don't know". Having experienced a few recent bike crashes myself, I think I might have answered the same way.
Here is the assessment of the injuries.
OK, so this thing he is holding, which is as effective as morphine for making his pain and suffering go away is a piece that fell off of his special blanket. He calls it 'string'. If 'string' is this powerful, you should see the effects of the full blanket (at least what is left of it). He vows never to ride again.
Just to prove his point, here he is reverting back to his non-pedal ways.
2 comments:
I love the play by play of Carter and his "bike". And the "string", that just made my day! Kids are so funny. Maybe he will "ride" again!
Ok, so after watching the video footage again, I got a better look at the bike. Seriously-get the kid a bike! and a decent helmet-it looks like you dug it up from Tye's era.
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