Fear comes in all sizes

As anyone would expect from a 5-year-old (and even an adult), Michael gets a bit apprehensive when he’s faced with trying new things. We’re all afraid of the unknown to some extent, and, I think if I were half as tall as everyone else, that tendency to back away from things would increase. Usually, to get Michael to try a new activity or food, there are many ‘deals’ that are brokered, terms passed back and forth, rejections, partial acceptances, until either the deal falls apart or an accord is met. Many times, in these situations, I can’t offer Michael terms he approves of (such as not having to do the activity in question) and, because I’m a 21st century ‘sensitive’ parent, I don’t force it on him (read: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Mom), and everyone goes away disappointed. I’ll admit that I get frustrated with him sometimes for not wanting to just trust me and hold my hand as he takes a step into the unknown.

It’s rare that we will share the anxiety of a new thing, but that happened this past weekend. We’d been talking about trying to get Michael to ice skate for some time, and we finally cleared our schedule on Sunday afternoon and headed over to the MRC for some public skate time. Sal and I had no idea what would happen, if Michael would run the other way, or what we’d have to broker just to get him to put the skates on. I haven’t been on skates for about 25 years, so after seeing the teems of people out on the ice enjoying themselves, I uttered something about blessed poo and felt my anxiety rise. However, fatherhood is good for some things (aside from having someone to blame your farts on), and I hid my anxiety behind counterfeit excitement, in an effort to get Michael motivated to try this. As it turns out, all it took was the promise of a video game (they have an arcade at the MRC) after skating, and he was hooked. He put skates on, walked around, and ‘skated’ around the rink twice. While this accomplishment doesn’t compare to, say, curing cancer or running a 4 minute mile, both Sal and I were extremely proud of him for barreling forward with not so much as a speck of fear. Myself, I probably tiptoed rather than barreled, but I made it around the ice several times without embarrassing myself, or falling on my face. Success.


You want me to do what?!?

I'm not sure who was holding who...

Michael was trying a triple axel here...

Ta da!!!