Last week, in amongst my family’s crazy Thursday afternoon routine of three kids and three different sports, my youngest daughter asked, with those big dark sad eyes that get me every time, “‘can I just have 20 minutes at the skate park before soccer?” In my efforts to be the fun mum, the one that supports her children’s endeavours, I said ‘sure darling we can fit that in”.
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My youngest daughter has been keen on skating on her scooter for about a year, but has lacked the confidence to go down the ramp. Each time she goes to the skate park it inevitably ends with her being disappointed that today wasn’t the day she found her brave.
So off to the skate park we ventured. She has spent the whole 20 minutes we had allocated for the skate park, in our busy time critical schedule, standing at the top of the ramp willing herself to take the step and roll down the ramp. When I told her it was time to go she looked disappointedly at me from her eyes begging for five minutes more. Just then some older boys came along with their scooters in hand.
This was Georgie’s cue to leave – she said she felt embarrassed trying to skate in front of the big kids. As she went to walk back to the car one of the boys asked if she was learning to go down the ramp, to which Georgie answered, looking embarrassed, “yes, but I’m too scared to go down”.
“I was scared my first time down the ramp too, but once you do it it’s heaps more fun than scary,” this young man replied. “Here I’ll go down next to you – we can do it together.” For the next 15 minutes I watch, in gratitude, as these six young boys all supported, encouraged and helped my daughter to learn the skills and techniques and find the confidence she needed to go down that ramp. And in that magic moment when she pushed off and rolled down the ramp the cheers of congratulations still bring a tear to my eye as I write this now.
I am so very grateful to those wonderful young boys who helped my 8-year-old daughter not only achieve something that she has so desperately longed for, but for also making her feel part of a community. All to often we hear the social commentary about the youth – often led by those who had their youth many decades ago - that they are lazy, self centred, want it all for nothing. Well that is not what I saw.
I saw a community of people support others to collectively achieve, have fun and create equity and inclusion for all.
