Bikes in the Park

This morning we headed to a local park to ride our bikes. This particular park has miles and miles of bike path to ride on, so I was pretty excited to ride a little distance with Miss E. Peter has been working on fixing up her old bike for Mr. T to ride on and it was finally ready. When we got to the park, Miss E and I rode off ahead while Peter walked his bike and encouraged Mr. T to try his out - with training wheels. He was reluctant to say the least, but I assumed he'd be happy to have a new (to him) bike and Miss E and I rode off. Soon she became worried that we were going to far so we headed back thinking we would meet Peter and Mr. T along the trail someplace. Nope. We got back to where we started and still not sign of them. Then I get a text from Peter "we're over at the playground by the soccer field". We head over there and sure enough they are lounging in the grass watching some middle school kids play soccer. We sat with them for a little bit and then I asked Mr. T if he wanted me to walk with him while he rode his bike on the PERFECTLY FLAT PAVED BIKE PATH.

I walked his bike over to the path and he got on and then he sat there. And pushed one foot down. And stopped. I offered to push him to get started, which I did gently and he pushed one foot down - and stopped. Then I asked if I should put my hand on his seat and gently push while he pedaled. He said yes, but the second we started going he screamed we were going to fast and slammed on the brakes. And that's how it went. Push one foot down, slam backwards on the brakes. Push another foot down and slam backwards on the brakes. I sat there, blandly smiling and encouraging while inside my blood pressure was rising. For the love of God, this kid wasn't even trying. And then it hit me. I do not have enough patience to teach him to ride a bike. Me, the patient one, the parent with the patience in our family, CANNOT DO THIS. To be fair, teaching the kids to ride bikes is clearly Peter's responsibility. Not because he's a boy, but because it's his thing. It is not my thing. But crap all mighty, Mr. T could conceivably be 15 before he takes the training wheels off. I really really wish we had started him on a scoot bike instead of training wheels but we didn't and it's going to be like swimming I think, slow slow slow.

Obviously, the main problem is he doesn't want to enough and physical ability runs second. We're just going to have to wait until he wants to do it and hopefully that will be soon! The saving grace of this all, is that he LOVES to ride on the trail-a-bike. I am just not a good rider with the trail-a-bike on my bike so that is going to kind of fall to Peter as well. Ehh....at least it will keep my blood pressure down.

Despite the bike thing, it really was a lovely morning at the park, and this afternoon we dropped the kids off at my parents for an overnight (thank you Nana and Grandpa!) and met some friends for dinner and a movie. So all in all, a lovely summer day.