Scooter Ride
I like to walk to pick up Link from school. This usually involves loading Gleek, Patches, and Link’s scooter all into my stroller and pushing. Link loves riding his scooter home, but there isn’t a good way to lock it up at school, so I just end up hauling it for him. Link loves riding his scooter so much that if I show up in the car he almost cries. Since Gleek and Patches enjoy the trip and I enjoy doing something active everyone wins.
Today I won even bigger than usual. Time came for me to pick up Link, and Patches was asleep. Yay! I’d only have to push one child instead of two, because Howard can listen for sleeping Patches. Then when I went to tell Gleek “time to go” she was so involved with her computer game that she wanted to stay at home with Daddy. For the first time I had no kids to take with me to pick up Link. This eliminated the need for a stroller, but I knew I had to bring the scooter because Link would be sad if I didn’t. I started out pushing the scooter, but by the time I was at the end of my driveway I’d figured out that riding the thing was safer than pushing it and letting it snake around and hit the backs of my legs. By the end of the cul de sac I’d figured out how to ride the thing and was having fun.
So I coasted along enjoying the breeze and feeling a little silly and a little guilty. The guilt was because I was riding the scooter sans helmet, something I’ve repeatedly scolded my kids for doing. I was even hauling Link’s helmet so he could wear it for the jaunt home, but we just don’t have a helmet my size right now. If I ever buy a bike I’ll get a helmet too, but for today I’ll just have to be a hypocrite. Feeling silly was because there aren’t many 32 year old women out there riding razor-style scooters. I wasn’t about to let public opinion alter this particular choice, but I couldn’t help but wonder what people thought as they drove or walked by. Mostly I’m glad to have had a 10 minute scooter ride where I remembered that 32 isn’t so old after all.