Everyone seems to be holding bikeathons these days. I have to admit I feel left out since I don’t know how to ride. Sure, I can donate to these worthy causes, but I do that anyway. The biking is the fun part.

I remember riding my little Strawberry Shortcake bike with training wheels when I was little. When my parents decided to take off the training wheels, somehow, the chain came off. My father is the exact opposite of a Mr. Fix It and somehow we never got past that minor obstacle and I never learned to ride.

[Ironically, my father was a Mr. Fix It for everyone’s problems. Everyone in his circle knew to come to him for any problems at work or with tickets or whathaveyou and he magically made it all disappear. He was the smartest man I ever knew until I met my husband who gave him a run for his money. But we all miss having our caring, dedicated, and strong father, father in law, and grandfather in our lives and I wanted to make this small digression in today’s posting, which happens to fall out on his yahrtzeit, to counterbalance his one shortfall with his many attributes.]

As an urbanite, my inability to ride never phased me. You’d have to be a masochist to want to ride a bike on Manhattan streets. Then as a baalas teshuvah, I thought I was off the hook since I had never seen frum women ride bikes so I thought it just wasn’t done. I don’t know if times have changed or my outlook changed but I see plenty of women participating in these bikeathons. Not me.

So, we try to train the next generation. We bought our children bikes. They love riding around with their training wheels. But it is all too rare that we get to take them out. It seems 4 children are hard to control on bikes. Strike that — 4 children are hard to control in general. Add wheels to the situation and it gets immeasurably harder. So, there are many prerequisites to just enjoying some time on their bikes. Firstly, I need my husband home. I cannot handle all their varying speeds and we need someone up front and someone in the back. Obviously, I also need the children to be home. It can’t be raining or too cold. It can’t be too late or at a mealtime. It can’t be a high traffic time of day. So, at this rate, my children may, unfortunately grow up biking deprived like me.

Funny enough, in the Five Towns where you can pay for someone to do just about everything with your children (remember that cooking with kids place?) I don’t believe anyone has a teach-your-child-to-bike service. I could be wrong. This might be something I would actually need to pay for. Anyone who can use an extra few dollars should make note of this moneymaking opportunity. It could even make more money than these bikeathons.

3 COMMENTS

  1. I think it’s only fair that your father comes and teaches your kids how to ride a bike to make up for the lack of teaching you.

    I enjoy your articles!

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