Dr. Moto

The wife is out with the older child attending a Saturday birthday party, so I'm home with the toddler, babysitting. It's Saturday, the sun is shining, it's about 70 degrees outside. I should be out riding! I haven't been on the bike all week. Forecast is for scattered T-storms later today, but I'm going for it as soon as the party is over. I'm shooting for 40-45 miles today if I can get them in before dark.

'nother

Get a trailer! It's not quite the high quality ride as going solo, but at least you're pushing pedals. Do some climbs with one and build strength

wabbit

THat sucks when you miss a nice day.I wish it was like that here. The month of may has been a washout so far. I think we've had maybe 5 sunny days all month. If you want to get on your bike you have to attach an outboard motor. ANd this is a long weekend, when a lot of us were planning long rides. It doesn't look likely. Today it's cloudy and windy, rain likely tomorrow. Apparently monday PM is supposed to clear up.

It's such a bummer when the days are nice and long but the weather sucks. IT's such a waste!

Guest

Ditto! Get out there before the weather breaks. Virginia weather is beautiful right now, but they said storms by early evening/late afternoon. You don't want to be stuck indoors on a day like this!

Koffee

ginger green

babysitting? Dude - it's your kid! Babysitting is when you take care of someone elses kids. What you are doing is spending time with your family. How is that "wasting"?

Do like the other poster said - get a bike trailer, make a picnic lunch for each of you, and get out! Your wife will think you are superdad. Remember the attitude you give you kids now is the attitude they give back to you when you are a teenage.

Ginger

Blackberry

I'm with Ginger. Taking care of your kids is the most important job in the world. Thank God I don't have any!

caloso

Get trailer. Give toddler cowbell. Teach toddler to say "!Venga! !Venga!" and "Allez, Papa!" Hammer hills. Hammer flats. Listen to toddler's shrieks of glee. Become steel-legged super-dad.

This is the one I own. The kids love it. It's fairly spendy but much, much cheaper than alimony and child support:

Dr. Moto

The daughter I was watching is 14 months old. We have a trailer -- she's been in it exactly once. At the time I wrote the OP, she had just gone down for a two-hour nap. So towing her was not really an option. But I appreciate all the suggestions.

On the bright side, the party ended on time, the wife came home, and I got in my 40 mile ride with no rain, just a few threatening-looking clouds. It was a weird ride. I had mapped out a new route on the computer over some roads I had never taken before. Once I got out there, I discovered that one of the roads was dirt & gravel. I was already several miles off the main road and pretty much committed to the route, so I went with it. I have a road bike with 700x23cm tires and no suspension, btw. The dirt/gravel ended up being ten miles, followed by a few more miles of the roughest pavement I've ever seen due to some construction. The rest of the ride was pretty decent, including some of the biggest hills I have seen in this area!

orguasch

I am baby sitting 483 apartment at 3 tenant per unit that is close to 1500 person, and I get to seat in my building until tuesday when my partner arrives from his long weekend off, this one sucks big time , plus my two grand children and my 8 years old son, well the time spent with my kids as I alway call them quality time spent with beautiful kids.

caloso

Hey, congrats, Dr. Moto. Sorry, I didn't mean to be harsh and I know exactly how you feel. I have 14 month old twins. For most of the winter and spring, they would sleep soundly until 7 or 7:30 every morning, so I could slip out of the house at 5:30 and get in a nice ride, then come back to change some diapers before heading off to work.

Unfortunately, lately one or both will wake at 4:30 or 5 and I'm missing my ride nearly every day. It's really frustrating. Especially since yesterday I rushed home from work thinking we'd be able to all go out for a late afternoon ride, only to have the twins afternoon nap go too late to get out there.

wabbit

My inlaws used to badger us about going out to see THE BAYBEEE (nieces) on a nice summer day. Which meant sitting in the hot backyard, with nothing to do but look at the BAYBEEE all afternoon. I'd say, there are 20 000 things i'd rather do and I'll list them: cycling, cycling, cycling, cycling...etc

feltrider

I know the feeling. My wife went to a baby shower instead of the b-day party though. Seems like I only thing I did today was clean my bike.

rule

Gee thanks dad.

Guest

The deal is, though, you weren't harsh at all. Too many dads are the type who think just like that- it's a "waste" to be "babysitting" their kid(s). When you have kids, you aren't "babysitting" when you're watching them... you're spending quality time with them, and that should be a time to covet. And time like that is never wasted- soon, they'll be all grown up and won't wnt to spend time with you at all. Then you'll look back on days like that and wish you could recapture them.

Koffee