Originally Posted by
genejockey
I got into cycling as an indirect result of us having kids. When The Older Boy was about 3 or 4, I was at a park playing chase with him, and found myself getting winded. "Cripes! I'm only 38!" I thought, and got a bike for the 2 1/2 mile ride to work, which started the whole ball rolling for me and cycling.
HOWEVER, even though I bought bikes for both boys, and updated them as they got bigger, they never had more than a marginal interest in it. I was disappointed, but our childhoods were very different. I grew up in a small town with nothing to do and miles of back roads all around. They grew up in a suburb, where their friends lived miles away, which would have required riding on streets and roads that I'm afraid to ride on as an adult.
My kids never showed much interest in my hobbies, either. The younger one picked up a guitar for a bit, learned a few chords, and bits of a couple of songs, but it didn't stick. With both of mine, I told them that I would financially support their sports/activities/hobbies in proportion to how much of their own time and effort they put into it. My older daughter's biggest thing was HS cheer, but not much outside of that. Being social was her hobby. With my younger daughter, I spend a LOT of money on softball-related stuff - gear, team dues, travel, etc. There was hope that she would turn her significant talent for the game into helping pay for college, but it was never a requirement. Despite getting plenty of interest from college coaches, she decided to hang it up after a final summer of travel ball before she left for school. I will never regret the money spent. She had awesome experiences, and the two of us had a lot of fun together traveling to exotic tournament destinations like Salinas and Modesto (if you know, you know - lol).