Tears of pride

Today at church, Morgan's friend Kaitlyn told her that she was practicing riding her bike. I used this as an opportunity to get Morgan pumped up about trying to ride her bike. She has been notorious for not caring, not trying and not really wanting to ride her bike. Except her father and I? Well, we kind of LOVE riding bikes. And we can't take family bike rides anymore until she learns how to ride her bike. We took her training wheels off about a year ago and she was having a hard time keeping her balance, because she had grown too dependent upon those little wheels of security. So, we opted to "lose" them so she would be forced to learn how to ride a bike the right way.

Except this back fired on us. Because she was too petrified to ride the bike without her little security wheels. And, our little girl is awfully cautious. I mean, a lot of kids maybe gripe about wearing their helmet, but ultimately succumb because they are forced to. Not our girl. Oh no. You'd think it was fashionable to be all bulked up with a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. In fact, she refuses to do pretty much ANYTHING involving wheels without all the "proper" equipment on. This can get quite funny when she's just scooting along on her super big and super slow scooter. :) Anyhow, I'm not here to talk about her learning how to ride a scooter. I'm here to tell you about her learning how to ride her bike. So, Kaitlyn had ridden her bike yesterday and I promised Morgan that when she learned how to ride her bike, we would take a bike ride as a family and have a picnic. After we dropped Kaitlyn off, I told Morgan that I knew that she could do it. I knew she was strong enough and smart enough and I was looking forward to seeing her ride her bike all by herself. I shared with her the expression "it's like riding a bike". I explained that once she learned, she would always be able to do it. She was very excited about the prospect.

We got home and she immediately changed out of her church clothes into suitable bike riding attire. If she had an inflatable unitard, I'm pretty sure she would have picked that. As it stood, she was in leggings, a long sleeved shirt and....monkey socks...pulled up! I mean, you can't ride a bike without your monkey socks, right? Oh, my daughter looked like Punky Brewster, I tell you! But, you know what? It must have worked. Because she totally did it! She rode her bike all by herself! Look 'ma! No training wheels!!



We were so proud of her, she rode back and forth a few times. Then we tried to teach her how to stop. Yeah....ummm, I think that will be for another time. When she had difficulty stopping, she got very upset with herself for not being able to do it and scared that she would fall. She had a hard time getting going again with riding the bike because she was scared of trying to stop. I told her to forget about stopping, that I would do the stopping for her and she was right back on top of the world, riding her bike by herself!

After she was done, she was still upset with herself that she couldn't stop. She was crying and saying how she was upset that she couldn't do it. Lance and I both were right there telling her how proud we were of her for doing it! She learned how to balance herself, while pedaling and steering and that was hard enough for one day. Now, instead of learning how to ride her bike, she's practicing stopping and that's a big difference.

I had this bracelet we had gotten in Kauai last year that I'd been holding off to give her as a special treat when she learned how to ride her bike. So, I came inside and gave it to her and told her how proud I was of her. I told her that it was her bravery bracelet since she had to have courage to get on that bike and that every time she looks at it, she can remember how brave she is. She started crying!! I mean just sobbing! She was clinging to Lance's neck and just sobbing uncontrollably. When I asked her why she was crying, she told me that she was just so proud of herself.

It made me realize how important we are in gently pushing our children to accomplish their goals. Especially for overly cautious children who are afraid of getting hurt, or not doing it right. If we gently push them and show them that they can actually do it, they learn so much and gain so much self confidence from those experiences. I, of course, started crying, seeing my first born sobbing tears of pride and joy for herself.

She told me it was the happiest moment ever that she was having. I told her that I was so happy I was there to share it with her. And I am. My heart burst with love and pride. This is what parenting is about.