The Bike Deal

Gretchen is how old? Right. She's 6 and 7/8th and still has no desire to learn to ride a bike.  I think we kids of the 70s and 80s all learned by the age of 5. I figured since Micah is 5 I would have her learn too.  We bought a bike for Gretchen at a garage sale, therefore Gretchen's bike would be 2nd handed to Micah. I told the girls that if they would learn how to ride their bikes we would jazz up their boyish bikes with new paint and baskets.

The supplies sat and sat in our garage





Finally, Gretchen decided to F her F (Short for Face your Fear).  We took her to the park by our house to learn on the nice little path winding path around the lawn.  There were four firefighters playing pickle ball that day on the tennis courts slightly detached from the fire station and kids playing at the park.

Now, if you know Greti, you know she can be a tad dramatic. Off she goes trying to balance on her bike screaming her lungs out :"I CAN'T DO THIS!" I gently remind her of her little saying to F your F Gretchen (Face your Fear).  As we pass the firefighters playing pickle ball she yells, "I CAN'T F MY F BECAUSE MY F IS SUCH A F THAT I CAN'T F MY F!" then she sobs. As you can imagine, the firefighters had stopped playing their pickle ball game to look at the young girl using what they thought was terrible language. And the parents watching their kids play at the family park were either chuckling or trying to figure out what the heck that was back there.

I sat her down by a tree to cool off while I took a stroll on her tiny bike with my knees looking like wings of a bird.  I laughed on my little jaunt and by the time I had circled she had simmered and was ready to try again more calmly.  She did it.



Gretchen still has to learn how to start, but she is clicking with the whole bike thing. Micah is now the only one left.  Please help us.