I took my four year-old son for a ride with the trail-a-bike on Saturday. Not meaning to even get out of our neighborhood, I didn't take my wegde with spares, tools, cell phone etc... Well, since January's weather has been so unpleasant, I guess that the good feeling of riding outside in the sunshine got a hold of me. We ended up riding farther away from my neighborhood than I expected, but he and I were enjoying being outside.

That's when it happened...rear flat on my bike. Crap. No tools, no spares, and no cell phone to call my wife. We were about two miles away from the house even with the shortest route home. My son was none too excited about walking home, but he didn't really know how far away we were.

We started walking and about a mile down the road, he started complaining a bit. Now, I expected a lot more complaining alot sooner. He only asked for me to give him a ride (him sitting on the trail-a-bike while I pulled) about a quarter mile from the house. He rode maybe 1/8 of a mile, and then said he could walk when we got to our actual neighborhood. He said his feet hurt, but I am proud of the way he acted.

By the way, my son is not the toughest kid yet in terms of pain tolerance (he is only four), but all-in-all he was a champ!

Yep, them kids can amaze us.

I took my two daughters to the farm in NE KS last spring and little did they know that me at 39, Uncle's who are 43 and 54, and cousins ranging in age from 6-13 would be working all day long the whole week. All the wives stayed home to go shopping. We had barb-wire fence to run, fields to clear of fallen timber and nettles, thistle and poison ivy to clear. My daughters worked 5 days straight, 8-10 hours per day with little to no complaints. It rained off and on the whole week so we were all wet, muddy and tired.

A few weeks after we returned home, I cut down a 35' Ash tree and my daughters helped me for 10 hours in one day to load the brush in the truck and take it to the dump, never asked me to go inside or to go play with their friends once.

Granted, I don't ask them to work like this very often but it is absolutely outstanding behaviour compared to commotion it creates getting them to clean their room.