Roller Skating

I don't think I have blogged about this yet, but it was such a fun day. My youngest son, Phillip, was wanted to learn how to roller skate, maybe for 4 or 5 months now. We did take him, as well as some friends, to a local rink which was having a family fun night. That turned out to be too busy. He frustrated easily, too many people, too much noise, he was a little embarrassed that others seemed to be skating circles around him and he couldn't take more than a couple of steps.

We did talk about the experience and how he thinks it could work better. Of course I could have taken the more main stream parenting approach and just said "too bad, you need to swallow your pride and get out there....etc. You know what I am talking about, I am sure you have either heard someone say something similar or your own parent has said something like that to you. But we didn't, we sat down as a family to see what was up, what he wanted what we could do to help with the frustration.

What we decided, after some discussion, was to rent the rink ourselves and Phillip could invite the friends he would feel comfortable being around. Dallen, my oldest, wasn't interested in skating, so he would bring his drawing things and invite a friend of his that also enjoys drawing. They could sit together and draw together, being encouragement for each other.

Phillip invited a few friends, and it was wonderful to watch. Phillip was just beaming with joy, and pride. With every circle he made around that rink he was getting better and better, letting go or the side, then moving away from the wall. He was just so excited. And he wants to do this one more time, maybe August or September, to really build his skills before tackling the Family Fun Night crowd. What a blessing to see my boys blossom, and expand in ways I had never imagined. I am truly so fortunate these two wonderful individuals chose to grace our family.