With graduations, promotions and last days of school happening everywhere I am sure many of you are feeling how I felt today. How did my kid get to be so old? Well today, Trinity, the baby of our family rode her bike to school all by herself. She has been harassing us for months to let her do this, but she doesn’t have anyone to ride with so we have been really hesitant. Last month I rode with her one day and mapped out the route, which is pretty much a straight shot down Santa Ana Avenue, super easy. When I rode my bike to meet her after school she was acting really weird. I was all excited to ride home with her and she kept glaring at me and not talking, which is so unusual for her, since she talks even more than me, if that is even possible. Finally she admitted she was embarrassed of me riding with her. ” What, are you serious? You are only 10 years old, how could you be embarrassed?” “Well, Mom, I didn’t need you to pick me up at the gate, if you had to ride with me you should have met me down the street.” Oh my God, I am embarrassing? Really?
I so was not ready for that because Tabitha has never been embarrassed of me, or she has never admitted to being embarrassed. I always drove her and her friends every where and she never asked to be dropped down the street. She even had Lou drive her and a few friends to a party in high school and invited him in say Hi to all her friends. All the kids have always hung out at our house with us, so I have never encountered this problem before. I know it is very common for your kids to be embarrassed of you but it is a whole new thing for me.
After she survived the humiliation of riding home with me, I just dropped the subject and told Lou he had to be in charge of Trinity and her bike riding adventures. She started begging again this weekend and after some wine on Friday night, Lou agreed she could ride her bike on Monday. So this morning she woke up and said ” I am taking my bike today.” Ugh, I totally forgot. Lou started discussing the path with her and reviewing all the rules and how to safely lock her bike when she announced she was not going to lock her brand new bike at school. “They watch the bikes, Dad and it takes way too much time, so I am not locking it.” After explaining why she absolutely had to lock her bike and get in the habit of always locking her bike, she declared “I am not locking it.”
Is she for real? Lou then very sternly said, “then you are not riding your bike to school!” She got off the bar stool and stomped all the way to her room. Is she 10, or 16, not sure? She the returned a few minutes later all ready to leave on her bike. What? I guess she is deaf too. I then explained that if she thought she was still riding her bike, she better go apologize to her Dad and promise to lock her bike. She then had the audacity to start arguing with me about locking her bike again. “no one locks there bike at school.” I then explained that I don’t care what every one else does and if she continues that line of reasoning into her teenage years she will be spending all her time at home with her father and I. She changed her tune pretty quickly at that point and went to re discuss the idea with Lou. Of course, Lou is a softy so he let he go on one condition. As soon as she got to school, she had to call us and let us know she made if safely and then turn off her phone.
Fifteen minutes later he receives a text, “I’m here”. Really, we said call, we didn’t mention texting. He then drove to her school and made sure her bike was in the racks and some stranger hadn’t kidnapped her and forced her to text us pretending she was safe. After he returned and informed me she had really made it, we both looked at each other and shook our heads. We are in so much trouble with this one. Ugh……
Happy Tuesday
