Bike Ride

Today we decided to take a bike ride. Normally we just pedal around out in front of the house, up and down the street. Today was different, in that we put the bikes in the car and drove to a place that had a nice sloping downward paved trail, about 1/2 mile long, near the house. Jen dropped me and the kids off at the head, and the plan was that we would call for a pick-up once we reached to bottom.

It was a beautiful day, clear, sunny, warm. However, none of these factors seemed to matter to Andy who decided that it was perfect weather for a complete meltdown. As soon as we had made it about 100' into the ride, Andy started crying.

"My legs hurt!"
"My hands hurt!"
"This helmet itches my head!"
"I'm hungry!"
"I'm too tired to coast!"
"The road is too bumpy!"
"This is too fast!"
"You're pushing me too fast!"
"I want to go home!"

All of these lines were screamed and repeated with accompanying tears, while I pushed Andy on his bike at about 1 mile-per-hour. To make matters worse, he kept the brakes on full the entire time. So basically, it was like this: Katie would ride back and forth like a saint, while I would ride my bike 100 feet, get off, come back and push Andy (who refused to pedal at all) until we got to my bike: rinse and repeat.

You should have seen the people's faces as they passed us going the other way. The non-parents that passed wondered if he was OK, and the parents just looked at me with genuine pity. I stayed pretty 'Zen' about the whole thing and didn't get angry at him, it was my idea after all. I tried to remind myself of some of the tantrums that I had pulled when I was a kid and how my parents handled it. Honestly, he was so totally over-the-top on the dramatics that I had to keep from giggling to myself occasionally, when considering the amount of effort he was putting into being miserable.

We finally made it to the end of the trail. When Andy saw the park at the final destination, he all of a sudden transformed into a normal kid and began to pedal and enjoy himself. The last 2 minutes of the ride were what I had hoped we would have experienced from the beginning: the three of use riding along side each other, smiling in the sun.

We called mommy for the pick-up. We waited for rescue and the kids enjoyed some PB&Js with a few Snickers bars, while Daddy enjoyed the silence and the shade.