Keep On Keeping On

Every day I fail miserably at this parenting thing. But every once in a great while I hit the nail on the head, pat myself on the back, and revel in my brillance. This is a VERY rare occurance so I have to enjoy myself when the moment occurs. So, as is usually the case, the most recent moment of parental bliss came out of a rather sticky situation. Last weekend Dean was out of town and the boys and I were feeling a bit lonely. I proposed a bike ride to the park, which thrilled Joey but Ben wasn't interested. He wanted to drive. No, I insisted, Ben would ride his bike and I would push Joey in his car/bike/stroller thing. Ben was very displeased and made his feelings known as he stomped through the house, grumbled while buckling his bike helmet securely to his head, and kicked the ground as he walked his bicycle out of the garage. Joe happily plopped into his mode of transportation and prepared to enjoy the ride. I am not exagerating in the least when I say that Ben SCREAMED and CRIED the ENTIRE way to the park. What should have been a 7 minute bike ride turned into 25 minutes as we stopped approximately every 5 feet to pick a wailing Ben off the ground. I was surprisingly calm the entire time as I eventually stopped helping Ben get up and ended up just sharing words of encouragement like "get up Ben. Now." "The reason you keep falling on the ground is because you are acting like an idiot." "That's it. No wii tonight." See, brilliant parenting. Just kidding, that was the low point of the trip. But seriously. He was being so ridiculous that neighbors were peeking their heads out of their homes to see what was going on and a random lawnmowing guy leaned on his truck laughing and shaking his head at Ben's theatrics. After we FINALLY made it to the park, drama Ben refused to enjoy himself (that'll show me) as he sat on a bench kicking the ground and looking angry while Joey and I played for 30 minutes. As the time to return home drew near I sat next to Ben on the bench and said "I tell you what. Your behavior on the way here was ridiculous. I KNOW you can do it. I KNOW you can ride your bike (without training wheels). If you can ride back without freaking out, throwing a fit, crying, or acting like a crazy person then you can earn back some time to play the wii." Ben perked up at this and I swear the little monster hopped on his bike and rode home without a whimper. In fact, he had a huge grin on his face and giggled the whole way home. I don't think he even stopped moving 5 times to straighten himself. And he NEVER fell down. What happened to the mad faller on the way TO the park?? So anyway, fast forward to today. One week after the big bike ride to the park (and more importantly the bike ride home from the park). Ben has ridden his bike many, many miles it seems in the past 7 days. He is doing awesome. Every day he rides his own little race track, a loop that runs from our driveway, 2 houses to the left, 2 houses to the right, and back to our garage. As I mowed the lawn today I told him he could ride all the way to the end of the street by himself since I was watching from our yard. He thought he was hot stuff and was so proud when he returned. I love seeing Ben's pride as he has finally mastered this skill that eluded him for so long. Several neighbors have commented on how great he is doing and that makes him feel wonderful and makes me proud as well. I am proud, obviously first and foremost, of him for working hard and tackling a task that frightened him. But I am also proud of myself. It would have been so much easier to just let the bike stay in the garage and allow Ben to walk to the park or even to have driven as Ben wished. But I knew he could do it and insisted that he, too, believe in himself. Don't we all need that at times? Someone who believes in us even when we are sure we are bound for failure. Way to go Benny Boo. I am so proud of you buddy.