Why Parenting Advice Sucks: A Rebuttal
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- by Mark Stephens on Tue Nov 16, 2010 - Add comment
Maybe I lost my patience. Maybe was I right on a few things, maybe I was wrong about some others. Okay, fine, I can handle that.
Check this out: the fantastic photographer Aaron Teasdale pedaled with his two boys on not just any ol' mountain bike but a tandem Cannondale towing one of those awesome trail-a-bikes. Get it? Three dudes on one bike, and just one-third is old enough to vote. They cycled through the wilderness of Montana for a whole six weeks. Check it: aaronteasdale.blogspot.com/2010/09/alive.html
Teasdale tells us, "We had six weeks of open skies, of sleeping under the moon and stars, and waking to symphonies of birdsong. We spent our days surrounded by mountains and wildflowers, fishing for trout, devouring wild strawberries, and drifting to sleep almost every night to the sounds of one wild river or another . . ."
Well guess what? He's put together a good list he calls "How We Did It" (external link). Yes, it's a list of advice that translates well to all manner of backcountry exploits as well as hardman cycling-with-kids.
I just have to say, if "adventure parenting" advice looked like anything digestible, it's in Teasdale's summation and needs no more:
- Go short
- Go mellow
- Pack light
- Scout your route
- Plan
- Have fallback options
- Don't underestimate your kids (hey, maybe you heard that last one before?)
Teasdale still shoots straight for what I think I was trying to get at yesterday in my tirade when he writes, "Think fun, not grueling."
Think fun.
Yes.
I think he and I are synchronized.
I agree, planning a trip with the nuclear fam? Think fun, not grueling. Now go do it.
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