I’ve read a lot of threads where everyone has shared their “best story” on a particular subject. Best find on a ride/run thread, poop in the pool thread (one of the better ones I admit), worst 1st tri experience, etc, etc… As a dad of 2 kids who is training for a his first 70.3 and a wife that is currently training for another fitness/figure competition we are always looking for “quality time” activities to do with our kids since the quantity can be challenging.
So my reason for this thread is that I want to hear about some of the “cool parent” stories you all have. It doesn’t have to involve triathlon, it could. It doesn’t have to be you, or even your parents, but just share a story. Might be beneficial for some especially since everyone on ST is training 25 hours a week while working 95 hours/week.
I’ll start:
We have friends of ours that have 4 kids. From my perspective (with 2 kids) I’m not sure how they manage it, but they do and they do so wonderfully. They do one thing particularly cool I think. Rather than having a date night every week/month with each other away from the kids, they have a date night each week with a different kid. Monday nights are their date nights and their kids love getting the individual time with their mom and dad away from the other siblings. My wife and I stole that idea last month and it’s a ton of fun for the parents too. I just thought, “man, that’s some cool parents”.
my wife and I do this as well with our girls. every other weekend, we have a one on one afternoon with each of the kids. usuallly ends up being for about 3-4 hours. The 3 y/o goes with mom, the 4 y/o goes with me …the next time we swap.
It’s great for a couple reasons. Since they are so close in age (16 months apart), they do everything together by default and often tend to compete for everything whether it’s for mom and dad’s attention, their favorite toy, whatever. Time apart from one another is valuable and necessary. Their behavior patterns are remarkably different when the other one isn’t around.
the other reason is obvious, its great for us to have one on one time with each of our daughters where we can spend time together.
I figure I am the cool parent right now. I come home from work throw him in the trailer and go for a ride, or push him in the jogger. He LOVES it.
Of course, he will think zipping around the park is really cool, until I start to show up at parent teacher conferences, or to pick him up at school while I am wearing head to toe spandex. I will very quickly loose my cool status.
while I am wearing head to toe spandex.
I already have plans like that to purposely embarrass my daughter when she is older. I for one LOVE the park. I can get in a pretty good workout with her running around.
I have a 16-year-old daughter and try to combine trips to competitions with cool activities for her. Last year, when I went to Chesapeakeman, I got an extra hotel room for her and her friends, and they spent the day at the beach in Ocean City, MD while I did C’man.
Our trip to the Boston Marathon last year was really cool. We spent the weekend wandering around Cambridge and Boston, caught the women’s Olympic trials, and then on the morning of the marathon, she negotiated the T and navigated the city by herself without a hitch.
My daughter has also become a passionate volunteer/cheerleader at some races, sometimes sticking around late in the day to make sure the last participants have someone to cheer when they cross the line. I’ve been really proud of her at times like this.
These trips have been as memorable for the parent-kid time as for the competitions. If I ever qualified for Kona, she might be more excited than me.
Us… We did the kids in the trailer bit. They had loads of fun…
We did the kids on the tandem bit… I rode one tandem with one kid while my wife rode another tandem with the other kid…
I did a century on the tandem with my son when he was 8 years old. At mile 72 he ws not doing so well, but he asked how much further. When I told him we were at 72, he turned around and said…oh, its only 28 more miles…we do that all of the time… our speed picked up and we cruised on in. total time 6:30 hrs.
We bought a triple so that I can ride with both kids while my wife is at work or she rides with us on a single. Interesting way to strength train totting two kids on a 10 foot long bike.
My son and I joined up with a buddy and his son and we did a biking camping trip. I rode with the two boys on the triple and my buddy pulled the trailer with the tents and stuff. It was 65 miles riding each way. great time had by the boys - - serious work outs for the dads
My daughter, my son, and I did a MS 150 on the triple. We had our picture in the ride pamphlet for the next year, just ignorethat fact that it looked like we were running a stop sign at the time. It was a controlled traffic point, so no worries
Helping my son win a kids tri. It was all about the transition. Out of the water last (or just about last), and out on the bike first. When he came in, he did a flying dismount, skidding in the grass, and running before the helment hit the ground
Riding with the young kids is much different when you are on a tandem (or triple for that matter). They are riding with you and not you riding with them. When they ride with you, they ride fast and with the adults. When you ride with them, they know all you are doing is just riding with them and that they are going slow. When we ride the triple, we always have to go twin turbo fast. We have been known to sprint the big bike up to around 32mph (on flat ground, and not wind assisted).
Great idea Jay. I really like the date night thing.
I have 5 kids - twin 10 year old, 17, 18, 19
Wife goes to school full time, and until the past December, owned a running store for 5 years. She has done 4 IM’s and I’ve done 2.
Time is tight, but we include them in everything. We let the twins ride their bikes when we run. They love being out on their bikes, I love them holding my water bottle.
The older kids play all kinds of sports, but they really like going to triathlons. All of our kids have done at least a sprint, so they encourage the training. We don’t do much outside of the family.
My kids have grown seeing Mom and Dad decked out in tri gear, so they don’t think anything about it. But what is funny, is when they have a friend over and we happen to be going for a ride. My kids forget that other parents don’t sport a pair of Zoot tri shorts very often. The look on their friends faces is friggin priceless.
