Side note: Denica’s has awesome cookies. When I say awesome…I mean F@#&^ING GOOD. I also take Oliver there for breakfast from time to time and get a breakfast burrito, another solid meal and reasonably priced at $6.99. The cookies on the other hand are a little steep at $2.49, but hey you only live once.
The route to Denica’s is somewhat treacherous for an almost three year old on balance bike. The only source of braking power coming solely from dragging one’s toes and some of the downhill sections are quite steep. The first time Oliver did some of the downhills I thought it was going to end in blood and tears, but after a little tank slapper (for those unfamiliar with the term tank slapper see this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzB6KSlD6ec) he regained control and rode it out. Now he’s a tad more cautious, but still gets going quite fast.
After a little rest and a cookie to re-energize us we headed back toward home.
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| Little off road biking |
A couple weeks ago I read this article called The Overprotected Kid (link to article) . It talks about how childhood independence, risk taking and discovery is being taken away from children in the name of safety. It tells the story of a playground in the UK called “The Land”, a playground that lacks the sterility of modern playgrounds and looks more like a garbage dump than a place modern kids frequent.
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| The Land |
"Today, these playgrounds are so out of sync with affluent and middle-class parenting norms that when I showed fellow parents back home a video of kids crouched in the dark lighting fires, the most common sentence I heard from them was “This is insane.”
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If a 10-year-old lit a fire at an American playground, someone would call the police and the kid would be taken for counseling."
I had an adventure playground where I grew up. It was called Fremont and the things we did back then would have likely landed us in Gitmo. But, with all of those things character was built, and made me the person I am today. Parenting is definitely balancing act between safety and independence/discovery. It seems culturally right now in America the pendulum is solidly on the safety side of the line. I’m definitely trying to let Oliver explore and fail as I believe these are some of the only ways to learn important lessons.
It’s strange, a while back I needed to drive my truck around to the garage and I had Oliver. So I plopped Oliver in my lap and drove the 100 yds to the garage. I decided it wasn't necessary to buckle him into his 5 point harness and cover him in bubble wrap to drive around the corner. Oliver thought it was the coolest thing in the world. He got to drive daddy’s truck. I felt like a criminal on the lookout for ‘do good-ers’ that were going to call CPS on me and coming up with responses to the inevitable comment, “don’t you know that most car accidents happen close to home.” Isn't that crazy? I also don’t wear a bike helmet on my rides with him, he does. Aren't I worried that if he doesn't see me wearing a helmet he won’t want to? No I’m not worried. Who’s the parent, that’s right me. The second he puts up a fight is the second he doesn't go on a bike ride. Guess what kid not everyone has the same rules, get used to it. Oliver has been riding a bike for a year and while good for a 3 year old, he sucks compared to me. That is just the truth. I've been riding bike for the better part of three decades. I've done some rather adventurous things on my bike where I most assuredly wore a helmet (not that it would have helped a whole lot). But riding next to a three year old going 5 mph is not what I’d call pushing the limit. I can hear it now, “what if a car hits you?” Uh…the same thing had I been walking. Riding my bike at 5 mph is akin to walking (for me, maybe not everyone). If I was walking alongside Oliver would I wear a helmet? No of course not. This world we've built have put us all in a ‘one size fits all’ risk profile and if you dare to step an inch outside that risk profile you’re browbeaten. I’m not saying throw caution to the wind. I’m saying how about make the decision yourself (oh my goodness personal responsibility, I know so much easier to let someone else make the decision). Do the risk calculation in your head, FOR YOU or YOUR KID. If it seems reasonable get on with it. Don’t rely on someone else’s judgment on risk, because I can think of a few people who should probably not only wear a helmet when riding a bike 5mph they should probably wear one walking as well. They should not be waiting for someone to tell them to wear a helmet.
Ok I’ll step down off my soap box now, back to our ride.
So right around the corner from our house is a trail alongside a creek. I've strangely never seen any kids playing in the creek. If that creek was near me when I was a kid, we would have literally been screwing around down there every day. So instead of heading to the playground as we would normally do on our way home from a bike ride, we decided to check out the creek. After a little searching we found a route down to the water’s edge, where Oliver instinctively started throwing rocks into the water. I decided it was time to teach him an important game. Let’s find a boat (stick), put it up river, and throw rocks at it as it goes by. An instant hit. We played around for a bit finding boats and throwing rocks at them. Then got back on our bikes and headed home.
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| Having fun at the creek |
Another successful bike ride, it’s really getting fun doing big boy stuff with my monkey.
