Do you ever have a hard time getting your kids to want to do anything? Us too, sometimes. The suggestion of going for a mountain bike, the first one of the season, was met with barely average enthusiasm. Thankfully our two oldest girls, (10 & 11), did say “OK, let’s do it!” with only a small amount of convincing..jpg)
The route we choose was about 8km. All up, we were gone for about an hour and a half, with a mixture of up and down terrain.
The hardest part of any adventure can simply be just getting out there. Once that battle is won, the muscles are warmed up and you do a bit of hooting and hollering, everyone gets into it. But beyond that, I think there is something to be said when we are doing something well, that is hugely motivating.
On this ride, I saw our girls shine. It was easy to praise them because I was so impressed with how awesome they ride. They are fit and determined – they don’t hold us up at all. They were willing to give tricky technical moves a go, and didn’t have to get off their bikes to walk around anything. Even steep area’s that I balked at, they used the skill and knowledge that they have to keep right on going. I felt like their success motivated and encouraged them, not just for this ride, but for the season ahead. They came home feeling pretty happy with themselves.
Not all kids are easy to motivate, but there aren’t many people in the thousands that we have worked with over the years that aren’t motivated by hard-earned success. There is something amazing about knowing ‘you did it’. Give your children that gift. Success is a powerful motivator.
For those who are interested in the route we did: Cemetary Bypass, Kiddy Up, Queen V, Kids Stuff, Eric’s Trail, Broken Hip – all intermediate trails. More info can be found here
