Spring Biking

Since the weather is starting to get much nicer, my kids have been wanting to spend more time outside. This is overall a great thing, but it is harder to manage kids that have no walls to contain them. Even with the difficulties, if they want to go outside, I try to make the effort to make it happen. After dinner though, my wife is not in the same mindset.

Dinner usually drags on fairly long because my 5 year old son C takes forever to eat. As fast as he can run, he is a really slow eater (unless it is something he likes). He asked if he can go outside after dinner and I said we could if we had enough time. My wife said no, so we were stuck. I encouraged C to eat quickly and he shoveled 2 bowls of salmon rice (one of his favorite meals) down the hatch in just a few minutes. He asked to go outside and again, was met with a no.

My wife said I needed to finish eating too (obviously), so I quickly finished and made sure it was fine with her to go outside. She said as long as we came back inside on time, it was fine. Glad a bit of pressure helped and I took C and our 2 year old son L outside. They were riding bikes and I was trying to keep L from crashing or going into the road. We went down a side street and met a neighbor and his kids. They were really nice and apparently I hadn’t talked to them for almost two years when we briefly said hello to each other. He also had two boys, so they all were running around together.

Eventually, my 7 year old daughter E made it outside and she was riding bikes also for a bit. We played until it was almost dark and eventually it was time to go inside. I’m glad my kids like biking so much (at least for now) and spending time outside is always good for the mind and body. Whenever I need a pick-me-up, I try to head outside and hopefully my kids will have that same habit!