Is this child abuse?

[singletrackmind]

I took my 4 year old son on the tandem for a 39 miler yesterday. Someone teasingly said it was child abuse so I had him ask my son how he felt. "Good" cam the reply. Then he asked if he liked it. "YES!" was the answer. Did he want to quit? "NO!". Then again, no cajoling required except I had to promise a playground at the end rather than the one he saw in the middle of the ride so he'd get back on the bike. He always gets a couple hours at the playground and a treat after. We are always prepared to sag...though he's never asked to so far. He's an amazing kid. I've also seen several elementary school age kids doing similar distances and more on their own bike and have talked to and praised their proud little selves.

Was it child abuse? Hmm. That's so hard to say without personally knowing the dynamic. It's easy to judge from the sidelines but sometimes we judge wrong as well as sometimes right. That they cared enough for a personal sag says there's more to the story. Perhaps this kid's really trained hard for this and his parents are encouraging and behind him 100%, giving him pep talks to keep him going along. Seems they aren't forcing him to ride if he had the opportunity to ditch for the dry van at any time.
Or, perhaps not.

Too bad you didn't get the chance to walk up and congratulate the kid, maybe ask how he came to take up such a tough ride and how he liked it. Then maybe you'd get peace of mind....or nightmares.

Either way, it's good of you to care.