I am definitely not an expert in getting kids to follow in parents’ footsteps in sports. I try very hard to get my daughter to be a triathlete like Mommy. Unfortunately, her other parent is very much not athletically inclined and my daughter is developing a bad lazy habit. But I won’t give up.
Personally, I have been swimming as long as I can remember and I have been always pretty good at it. I even did my first open water swim when I was 10. I don’t remember the distance, but it was probably 1k or so. Pretty good for a little kid if you ask me. I biked like every other kid back then and running was a normal part of childhood. I was never overly serious about any of these (although I did swimming twice a week until I went to high school). Like most of us, I couldn’t take PE less seriously if I tried, although I attended it pretty much every time. I didn’t start running regularly until I went off to college and I didn’t get serious about my sports until I was already in my thirties. Now, I have some regrets that in Poland (where I lived until I was 19), sports were not taken too seriously at school and I was definitely not taught how to properly do strength exercises. And most importantly, I have next generation of potential athletes in my care in form of my seven year old daughter. For now, I can only get jealous when seeing pictures of little kids trying their first triathlons. I really want her to join me!
Teaching kids how to bike: HELP!!! My daughter took a nasty fall on a bike when she was 3 (I think) and for some reason, she chooses to remember that. What kid remembers stuff like that for 3-4 years??? Now she is resistant to learning how to bike. I tried talking her into it and bribing, but without much success. Sadly, her dad decided that one day she will decide to learn and he told her it’s fine for her not to learn how to ride a bike. She takes it as not learning to bike ever. At this point, she is 7 and always scared that she will fall. Me being able to run next to her and hold onto the bike isn’t helping. Maybe one day peer pressure will do it? Any advice will be welcome…
Swimming: oh, this one is fun! Her, I am happy to say that my daughter is a little fishy. Of course, she is also totally normal: she needed a proper instructor to learn how to swim. I used to feel very self-conscious about it until I found out it’s completely normal. An old coworker was a child of to Division I college swimmers and her dad completed several full distance Ironman races. And you guessed it: she wouldn’t learn how to swim from her parents and needed proper lessons. I once talked to a lady who runs swim school at my community gym/pool. She rose to that position from being a swim instructor. She has 3 kids. None of them learned how to swim from her. Now, my little one can swim decently, but she strongly prefers to play (surprise 😉) and to swim under water. She is not going to be racing any time soon, but for now, I am just happy she won’t drown (although she pretends she would if I am around, so I hold her up in the water).
Running is the easiest, since we all can do it. No special training necessary! I am now trying to convince my daughter to run with me. Since she is only 7, we aren’t talking about proper runs. Last summer, I got her to do runDisney 5k’s with me. It was fun! And a lot easier than dragging a kid to an organized race. I think that I will one day take her to those, but I enjoy virtual runs and challenges. We can do it whenever works for us. Last time, summer shorts were The Incredibles-themed and this year, it’s going to be Marvel (Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Iron Man). I already know that my daughter and I will be doing them. Hopefully, there will be more running (rather than walking) this year. I also hope that I can register my daughter (and obviously pay for the medals) without registering myself. As much as I love my medals, I really don’t need more of them on my side of the trophy wall. I am trying to get my daughter’s friends to join us, too. If it turns out that an adult has to register, I will definitely be happy to register myself and all the kids who want to do it with us. I have an easy measure for 5km runs when I’m home – when you leave my house and make a loop around a lake next to my gym, it adds up pretty much to that.
I am hoping that if my daughter sees me do more triathlons, she will agree to do more serious swimming and start taking interest in biking. Seeing my marathons (and medals 😉) has been working. She is interested in the short runs and every now and then, she voices her interest in marathons (although it tends to go away when she finds out that it’s like eight times 5km). I already made her a deal: majority of marathons requires one to be 18 years old to participate. Kona Marathon is in the last weekend of June. If she is still interested in it when she turns 18, we can do that marathon together as part of her high school graduation trip, Hawaii vacation included 😊.