BrumJim
Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
- Location
- Selly Oak, Birmingham
Met up with a friend of mine yesterday. Told me this story:
On their summer holidays this year they gave their 9 year-old daughter a chance to ride a bike. Despite her parents having taken many months learning to ride when they were young, she managed it after just less than 1/2 hour.
Fast forward three or so months and they decide to buy her a bicycle for her birthday, which she loves.
Again, fast forward a month or so, and Mum is upstairs feeling ill, and Dad is at the grandparent's place. Daughter wants to go out on her bike, so Mum gives permission, under the instructions that she doesn't go far, and no further than the park at the top of the road. An hour later and she hasn't returned. Mum rises from the sick bed, goes up to the park, and finds no daughter. In a panic she phones Dad and tells him to come back with the car and to start looking.
Dad leaves the grandparent's house and sets off. He hasn't got far (just a few hundred yards) when he sees a girl on a white bike, just like the one they gave to their daughter. As he gets closer, he sees that it is his daughter on her new bike. She was fed up with being on her own and Mum being in bed that she decided she wanted to go and see Dad.
Only the parent's house is one side of the city, and their house is on the other. Little daughter (now 10) had navigated her way on her own from one to the other using her memory of frequent trips between the two, a distance of 8.5 miles. And the city is Sheffield, so had a couple of decent hills to negotiate on the way.
Dad is so impressed that he fails to tell her off, leaving this duty to Mum. Me? I'm seriously impressed.
On their summer holidays this year they gave their 9 year-old daughter a chance to ride a bike. Despite her parents having taken many months learning to ride when they were young, she managed it after just less than 1/2 hour.
Fast forward three or so months and they decide to buy her a bicycle for her birthday, which she loves.
Again, fast forward a month or so, and Mum is upstairs feeling ill, and Dad is at the grandparent's place. Daughter wants to go out on her bike, so Mum gives permission, under the instructions that she doesn't go far, and no further than the park at the top of the road. An hour later and she hasn't returned. Mum rises from the sick bed, goes up to the park, and finds no daughter. In a panic she phones Dad and tells him to come back with the car and to start looking.
Dad leaves the grandparent's house and sets off. He hasn't got far (just a few hundred yards) when he sees a girl on a white bike, just like the one they gave to their daughter. As he gets closer, he sees that it is his daughter on her new bike. She was fed up with being on her own and Mum being in bed that she decided she wanted to go and see Dad.
Only the parent's house is one side of the city, and their house is on the other. Little daughter (now 10) had navigated her way on her own from one to the other using her memory of frequent trips between the two, a distance of 8.5 miles. And the city is Sheffield, so had a couple of decent hills to negotiate on the way.
Dad is so impressed that he fails to tell her off, leaving this duty to Mum. Me? I'm seriously impressed.