When your kid likes doing something, and is happy doing something, and you're happy for them to do it, for God's sake keep doing it! I first learned this lesson (painfully) with swimming. I took Annabelle for a few months when she was 10mths old. Then the weather got cooler, I got bored with it and we stopped. I admired people who kept up the monotonous swimming routine all year round and kept thinking we really *should* get back into it - for her sake, and also just to have a fun activity we could do together.
Eventually, we moved to Adelaide and after a few months orienting ourselves, I found a local swim school. Rang up, booked her in, turned up the next Sunday ready to dive back into it, so to speak... picking up right where we left off.
Little did I know that in the 18mths that had passed, Annabelle had forgotten all about swimming and what fun it is to splash and sing in the warm water. She absolutely, utterly, flat-out refused to go near that pool. There was crying, screaming and literal digging in of heels. No amount of encouraging, cajoling, begging or bribing would work. She just Would. Not. Swim. In fact, she wouldn't go through the glass doors to where the pool is. After around 30 minutes of this, we left. Meanwhile we had handed over $50 for the monthly fee and been told that sorry there are no refunds. (It's ok, I fought that one and got my money back).
We resolved that she needs to spend more time around water before we attempt lessons again, but of course we haven't found the time to do that so I'm looking forward to how she reacts at her first school swimming carnival. NOT.
Fast-forward to today. Mel and I both own ridiculously expensive mountain bikes. We bought them at a time we couldn't afford them and are ashamed at how little use they get. Of course mine is the one with the toddler seat on it, and for a long time the reason mine didn't get ridden was because Annabelle wouldn't have a bar of it. She wouldn't even leave her helmet on, but that was kind of to be expected because she was just a baby. But earlier this year when she was a little older, we put her in her seat, whacked the helmet on her head and surprise surprise, she didn't protest! We happily pedalled down to the beach, had coffee, played on the glass on the foreshore and revelled in the fact that we could be one of those biking families that you see out and about on the weekends. This made us happy.
Then winter came and the bikes were put away again. Until today. I asked for some proper mountain biking shorts for Christmas and Mel happily obliged. (note: they have the lycra on the inside but on the outside look like normal shorts. Far more aesthetically pleasing than your standard bike shorts.) This morning it's a beautiful day, so we excitedly planned an outing riding our expensive bikes, with me wearing my new shorts. Annabelle literally dragged me off the computer this morning, pulling me by the hand. "Come on, Mum. Let's go, let's go!" We put her helmet on and strapped her into her toddler seat while it leaned up against the front fence. Then I moved the bike away from the wall to climb on... and it was all over. Just like that. The tears were very real and she looked visibly frightened. She cried and asked to get off the bike RIGHT NOW!
So we rode while she walked along beside us in the park and we offered several times for her to get on and told her how fun it is, but she said no thank you very much, she'll just walk. She actually ran along for a while and that was quite cute. "Look mum, I'm running!" "Want to ride the bike?" "No, I just run". Then I said "How about you hop on for just a bit and you can hop off if you don't like it?". She replied "No mum, I just hop off. I don't like it".
Bugger.
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