Let me give you an example. Linnaeus often doesn't eat his snack during preschool, so he's pretty hungry when I pick him up. Oliver let him sit & finish it before heading home a couple of times, & back when I used to walk with the stroller to pick him up, he'd stand on the skateboard attachment, using the footrest of the stroller (that baby Bronte's short little legs didn't need) to hold his snack. Nowadays I always pick him up with the Yuba Mundo. It's way easier since my hip is giving me grief when I walk, plus it's faster. But he isn't strapped into a child seat anymore--he rides on the rack, holding onto his own little handlebars--so he can't eat a snack while we bike.
One day he asked to eat his snack after preschool, but I didn't want to sit & wait while he did that. Bronte & I were hungry, since we were planning to head directly home for lunch. So I tried to convince him to hop on the bike & delay gratification for a mere five minutes. That's all it takes to bike the 1km or so home from preschool. But nope. He was not having it. No matter what I said, he was intent on pitching a wobbler. So I plunked him on the bike & headed out while he cried loudly.
It was like having a siren or something & I'm sure the doppler effect of his constant "WaaaaAAAAaaaaaaaah!" must have been a bit funny, though it was pretty hard for me to see that in the moment. The kid screamed the entire trip home, while I set my jaw & stared straight ahead, trying to ignore the heads that were probably turning, people wondering why the heck this kid was caterwauling.
I guess it's rides like these that make me appreciate the good ones more. How about you: got any public tantrum stories to share with me?
Follow Spokesmama here too:
This is very funny (after the fact, of course).
ReplyDeleteI did have a couple of events with my daughter sitting in her seat where she was wailing for some reason totally unrelated to the bike ride itself. Probably snack stories, too, like the time I refused to give her a second lollipop, or forgot to bring seaweed at daycare pickup. It always made me self-conscious, wondering if people hearing her screams thought I was a vile mom for strapping her on a bike instead of into a car seat like all decent parents...
(The irony is that she wailed the most in her car seat. For the first year of her life, she screamed nonstop from the moment the car seat was installed in the car to the moment we parked and got her out. I mean just that: non stop. She was predestined to be a cycling child.)
Yes--Bronte is similar. When we do book a Modo car & drive somewhere, she spends most of the time in her carseat either whining "outoutoutoutoutout!" On the bike, unless she's really tired, the commentary is about how many dogs & birds she sees along the way.
DeleteThanks for your comment!
YEP! SO true!! that 5 minute ride can be the longest, toughest ride home. I'm so thankful that the loudest tantrums are closest to home. Here's to the good and the better!!
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