Okay all you parents on the board....chime in with your honest opinion on this. First, the background:
I am 38 years old. I was raised by relatively strict parents, yet they allowed me to do a lot of "physical" activities...football, baseball, raced bmx bikes for a couple years, had dirt bikes from age 11 or so, had "hot rod" cars as a teenager, etc. i came out okay, thanks to the love and direction my parents gave me, yet I won't deny I made some poor decisions at times...I never got into drugs, but I had a few beers at some high school parties, street raced a little bit, broke some bones crashing on the dirt bikes, etc...but never had a really "bad" period....I respected my parents because they were strict, yet also respected the fact that they allowed me freedoms to have some fun, too.
Now I find myself with a six year old son, and he is 100% pure boy. He loves sports, loves anything mechanical and or motorized, and has absolutely no fear of anything. He's big, athletic, strong, smart, and a pretty good kid. We spend a lot of time together, he comes to the water with me when I work on problem boats, hangs in garage with me while I play with the bike or cars, we have rc trucks we work on together, I coach his t-ball team, etc, etc...Anyway, enough background.
Well..maybe a little more background...I live in a newer, nice residential area. 25 mph speed limits, stop signs at every corner, no 4 lanes, no traffic lights, typical "planned community" suburban paradise. My son's school is about 8 blocks from our house, which involves about 4 stop signs to get to. My son love the bike...he shows all his friends the busa as soon as they walk in the door...and sometimes I take him to school on the bike. He has a properly fitted DOT helmet, and I checked with the local police to make sure there were no age restrictions concerning passengers(okay as long as they can reach the pegs, which he can). I would NEVER ride with him in traffic, on the freeway, in the city, or over 30 mph or so. But I do take him to school, through the neighborhood. We both wear shorts and short sleeve shirts, and again, never leave the neighborhood. Well, today I'm dropping him off, and another parent (who I don't know) jumps out of her car and gives me the verbal beating of my life. She tells me I'm irresponsible, not qualified to be a parent, should be arrested for child endangerment, and actually called me "stupid motherfu**er" in front of my son. Mind you, this was a full frontal attack, I never had a chance to utter a word for the first 30 seconds...I calmly removed my helmet, never raised my voice, and told her to please mind her own business, as our choice of vehicle was not her concern. She replied that she would be calling the police with my plate number, as well as reporting me to the school, as well as having motorcycles banned from the school parking lot. My little guy stood there as I told her to do what she deemed appropriate, yet kindly watch her language in front of my son. If it would have been a man cursing me out, I very well may have popped him one in the mouth, but cooler heads prevailed. She turned away got in her SUV, and actually peeled out pulling away from the curb, with 50 kids within 20 feet of her truck.
I stood there stunned, told Austin to go ahead and go to class, and considered my options. Honestly, I gave thought to chasing her down and giving her a sample of my well honed curse word vocabulary, but realized it would only fuel her fire. I rode home, parked the bike, and drove in to work, where I'm typing this.
Parents: Am I out of line for riding Austin to school? Again, this is the only situation where he will be on the bike...I wouldn't feel safe anywhere else. I feel that there is always risk in anything you do, and the best you can hope for is to manage said risk to an acceptable level.
What do you think??
Tim
