Sunday Funday

So, it is the end of another fun filled family weekend. It was a busy weekend, it was my husband’s birthday during the week but he was away working so we tried to do all our celebrating over this past weekend.

To say it did not go quite as planned is a fair assessment. The main reason for this is due to the fact that the children and I have caught the annual “return to school” cold. I think that we all experience this but it is inconvenient to have one during a global pandemic.

In addition, the husband’s car decided that she did not want to let him in this weekend, I think she fancied a rest, so a good chunk of yesterday was taken up with him trying to persuade her to unlock the doors.

Anyway, as a result, I have not been at my best this weekend. I have been grumpy and lazy. The basics have been taken care of but any extras have been a real challenge.

The children have had a lovely weekend. They have spent some time with their Nanna, including a special treat of an overnight stay at Nanna’s house. We went for a lovely meal today at a local farm shop/cafe with my husband’s family followed by a look around at the animals.

But, after this, we took the children to ride their motorbike and quadbike in the woods. Today was the first time that I have gone to observe this. I do struggle to not spend the whole time panicking about what might happen. Normally my husband and the children do this as a special thing that they do with Daddy. I would typically be at home, watching the clock, trying to get the housework finished to keep my mind occupied until they get home safe and sound.

Today however, I accompanied them and watched my children whizzing up and down on these machines. I am so glad that I did. Today I got to witness how responsible and how much they have grown up first hand. The real privilege was being present to see, first my daughter and then my son ride a motorbike unassisted.

It was amazing and terrifying. It was not all plain sailing. There were some spills. Both of the children fell off, were uninjured and they both picked themselves up and tried again. This showed me that they are resilient.

The fear kicked in when I realised that my daughter, the second born, has no fear whatsoever. She got on that bike, opened up the throttle and went for it. She was off up the track showing no sign of touching the brakes. My son was on his quadbike quite happily going up the track, turning round, coming back towards us then repeating this.

I am walking and chatting with my mother in law feeling rather relaxed, until I clock in my peripheral vision a pink helmet disappearing round a bend ahead of us. Next thing I know my instincts have kicked in and I am sprinting along this dirt track to try and catch up with this 6 year old child, who is perfectly happy whizzing along this track. All I can think is I have to catch her before she reaches the end of the track where we have parked the car. My main fear was that she would not stop and would end up shooting out on to the main road. I am running as fast as I can naively screaming her name and shouting for her to stop.

Meanwhile, my husband has jumped on the back of my son’s quadbike and he is waving as they overtake me when we spot the pink helmet stopped up ahead. Now she thinks its a game so off she goes again. She did finally stop, the boys reached her and when I approach she is giggling. She is having so much fun which is only improved with the knowledge that mummy was running after her and couldn’t catch her.

We are very fortunate that we live in a rural town and it is very easy for us to nip up the road to be able to enjoy these experiences. My moment of pride today was witnessing the consideration that my son gave to other people who were also enjoying the day. He was ahead of us when we were on our way back to the car and suddenly we see him move his quad bike to the side of the track, turn it off and get off the quad running back towards his sister signalling for her to stop.

We were all confused but then we spotted two horse riders heading towards us. Our daughter immediately turned off her engine but was struggling to move the bike to the side so my husband helped her so that the horses and their riders could pass safely. This was noted and appreciated by the riders themselves as they thanked us on their way past. We all watched the horses pass, waited for a couple of minutes before restarting the engines and heading off again.

They understand the importance of being considerate of other people, never giving up, to try your best and most of all how to enjoy themselves. So I think that is a win for my husband and I on the parenting front. It is reassuring to know that we are getting some things right.

I do have some guilt but it is not mum guilt this weekend. I feel guilty because I have not been able to do all the things that I would have normally done to spoil my husband like decorate the house with bunting and balloons or even made him a cake. I hope he knows how much we all love him and how much we need him. He is my rock and I know that I am lost without him and although this weekend hasn’t been as special as I had hoped we did still have fun with family and a couple of screams and laughs along the way.