I think I did a bad thing...

[Bicycle]

My middle child is fifteen and appropriately independent for his age.

He was planning to ride into a local small city at 0900 on Sunday and then ride back later in the day. It's a ride of 15 miles one-way that he's done many times. The road is a slightly hilly, sinuous single carriageway NSL road that cars often travel along at 70-80 mph.

On Sunday morning it was cold, wet and slippery. Horrid, really.

I tossed him the garage keys to get his bike out and sort it out... then I bumbled off to dig out some full-finger gloves and a headband thingy...

Then (to my shame) I said "It's absolutely 'taters outside, the sun is low and the roads will be slippery. Is this a good idea?"

He thought better of the ride. The protective-father part of my brain thought I'd done a sterling job. He often ignores my advice.

The Elbows-Out Tashkent Psychopath part of my brain felt utterly rotten for suggesting he gave it a miss.

This is a boy who's been riding (accompanied) the 70 miles to see his grandmother in the Valleys since he was ten. He does know what he's doing, he can handle a bicycle and he's no stranger to artics whipping past him a little too intimately on fastish descents.

We raked the last leaves, lit a bonfire and cleared gravel paths instead that morning - and I felt a bit naughty for discouraging him.

It irks me that he might have attached some (in truth absent) wisdom to my words and thereby given them a gravitas they lacked.

Have all parents done something like this, or was I crushing the spirit of adventure in those I love?

 

[Mozzy]

You were just doing what any decent parent would do. Fair play to you, but more importantly perhaps fair play to the lad; clearly been introduced to life in an exceptionally good way. Respect I say.

 

[upsidedown]

Sometimes you just get a feeling that something's a bad idea, i tend to go with it.

 

[G-Zero]

IMO You did absolutely the right thing.

You didn't prevent him from going, just made the suggestion to him pointing out a couple of dangers that he may not have considered.

Sounds like he made his own mind up after that..... Sensible lad

 

[Strick]

Sometimes you just get a feeling that something's a bad idea, i tend to go with it.

+1

 

[Globalti]

Cycling may not be a dangerous sport but in mountaineering, climbing, caving and anything else I've done that's considered dangerous, it's a truism that you only meet the cautious ones because the silly ones are long dead.

Having the humility to call it a day is a mark of experience.

 

[Cyclopathic]

Cycling may not be a dangerous sport but in mountaineering, climbing, caving and anything else I've done that's considered dangerous, it's a truism that you only meet the cautious ones because the silly ones are long dead.

Having the humility to call it a day is a mark of experience.

And he got someone to help him with the garden chores. Bonus.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

Cycling may not be a dangerous sport but in mountaineering, climbing, caving and anything else I've done that's considered dangerous, it's a truism that you only meet the cautious ones because the silly ones are long dead.

Having the humility to call it a day is a mark of experience.

There are old pilots,
and there are bold pilots,
but there are no, old, bold, pilots!

 

[400bhp]

"It's absolutely 'taters outside, the sun is low and the roads will be slippery. Is this a good idea?"

^^^Good parenting. You let him make the decision. That's how it should be done. Telling them not to do something doesn't generally work.

 

[col]

Caring parents will always show their concern, you sound a great parent.

 

[Matthew_T]

Whenever I go out on my usual ride of 16 miles, I always say goodbye to my parents (because you dont know what will happen) and 9 times out of 10 my mum will say "Your going out in this weather? Its freezing". I reply "Well it isnt that bad".
Everyone in my house thinks I am a numpty for going out in terrible weather but recently even I have accepted that it has been too windy and wet to go out.