The Bumpy Ride

Another day, another metaphor. Well, a literal one this time. We went on a family bike ride, just the six of us. It was a bumpy ride.

We’ve been encouraging our now 8-year old to learn to ride a 2-wheeler for a while now. He was never into his balance bike and has been an avid scooter-er for years now. The bike had grown into a larger-than-life thing. So we stopped pushing. Our school district does a unit on biking in fourth grade, so at the latest, we hoped they might teach him. And then COVID hit, and a great way to be socially distant while with your friends is to go biking. Motivation kicked in, along with the idea of using his big brother’s bike with hand brakes and the pandemic-inspired stretched out time and space to practice something challenging. Suddenly it clicked and he could ride!

Oh the joy! He rode all day long. He told everyone he saw. He was beaming with pride. And then snap--the chain broke! This is probably not a big deal for bikers, but we are not handy with anything, including bikes. “Not to worry,” said the problem-solving side of my brain, “I’ll write out to my Facebook community to see if anyone is looking to sell a bike.” A friend came to the rescue with not just one, but two bikes, and for free! (And we got to pay it forward with our bike to a family that knows what to do with a broken chain!)

We finally had 4 bike riders, 4 bikes, and a chariot trailer for the twins, so we could do a family bike ride. Hooray! We had promised a ride to a local farm with ice cream and apple cider slushies once R learned to ride his bike. That day had arrived. We pumped tires, we tightened bolts. All this took time and fortunately the kids were patient, though it turned out they were eating granola bars with chocolate so when I looked in the trailer it looked like a literal sh** show!). Luckily I had packed wipes (and a portable potty, change of clothes, sunscreen, bug spray, snacks, and water… you know, just a few things to add to the weight of the trailer when a family goes out for a bike ride!). Off we rode! It was wonderful riding as a family. Those small hills were hard, and the sweat was pouring down, but we made it to the farm and there was ice cream and there were slushies, and there were even friends to chat with there, from a safe 6-foot distance of course!

As I took my first pedal to head home, I discovered I had a flat tire. Problem-solving time again. Luckily we remembered how to switch the trailer, so we attached it to my husband’s bike so I could ride as much as I could on the flat tire and walk the rest of the way with my bike. Well, turns out that without air in the tire, turning is a totally different ball game. I should have learned this lesson the first time I tried to turn, but it took two times to confirm that I should dismount before any turns. Luckily, no injuries. Definitely some fear on my part as well as anxiety from my oldest about my falling and about R potentially crashing into him with a sudden stop. Like I said, no physical injuries.

Long story long, we made it home. On the positive side, R persisted and learned to ride a bike. We persisted through a broken chain, fixing handlebars, dealing with a flat tire, changing the chariot attachment, and getting back up after falling. On the negative side, all of those things happened. But that is the bumpy road of life.

These days that bumpy ride seems bumpier by the day, and to be honest, I’m not always glad to be on the ride. Our persistence and optimism are really being put to the test. But, these bumpy rides are truly the stuff of which memories are made. Those bumps challenge us (I was so patient!), make us stronger (I can figure this out!), bring us closer together (remember that time…), and remind us that, no matter what bumps are in our roads, we will ride on and we are enough. So as you journey along your own bumpy road, remember that this parenting journey was already a marathon, and now is an ultramarathon, and there are hills, potholes, and cramps along the way. Those are just growing pains. There are also summits, vistas, and a great future story to tell. You got this!