Self-Quarantine (Day 18)
April 1, 2020
I remember the red leather seat. The red handlebars. And the streamers. I remember the dead end street we lived on. My baby brother was riding his black car in the background, so I must have been at least 6 years old. Maybe 7? I remember looking back and seeing my dad with his big glasses and black mustache, standing still as I pedaled away. He was definitely smiling triumphantly. I had finally done it! I don’t particularly remember how I felt except that I know now the moment was special because of how much pride I saw on his face. I think I rode that bike up and down the street 50 times that day.
It’s 2020 again, and realizing that I have been putting this off for over a year, I decided to just seize the quarantine, buy the kid a new bike, and teach her how to ride it. It was a now or never decision. Also…Alex, my middle kid, had been whining about having nothing to ride that goes “super fast” so, it was time to pass along his sisters bike to him anyway.
I started out the day adamant to create the perfect memory. This is going to be great, I tried to convince myself. We will overcome her fears and just bond and enjoys our time. Nope. Who am I kidding? I felt that while I may succeed in teaching her, the experience wasn’t going to be pleasant! Despite my best efforts, I’m not exactly a patient person. I used to snap very easily but I have been working on some techniques to focus on my interactions and really put myself in my kids shoes. It’s working. For the most part.
As we headed out to the street, she was squealing with excitement over her new bike and I was repeating a mantra in my head, I will not yell at her when she inevitably ignores my instructions. I will not yell.
Knee pads on. Elbow protection. Hair tied back. Helmet on. Okay helmet off because it’s bothering her and we want to focus here. Also, the man in the YouTube video said the helmet wasn’t necessary at this stage. Ha!
Man said it would take 5 minutes. Guaranteed via “The Pedrin Way”. Took like 4 hours with 427 breaks for water, snack, whining, crying, water, “I can’t do it!”, snack, “this is too hard”, running, tripping (that was me), falling, scratches and scrapes, whining, threatening, yelling, laughing, crying (me again) and finally pedaling all on her own past three houses before realizing I wasn’t even holding her.
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