"People in Oregon must be poor."

[Trek420]

I kinda bumped it up. A new TE'er brought up the experience of being mistaken for a homeless person because she was riding a bike

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=22674

I remembered this was a good discussion of the issue, an old fave thread.

Sorry for the confusion this has caused.

[mimitabby]

Sorry about that, i couldn't resist. This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I tried very hard to raise my sons with freedom... and most people said to me; "welll, if they were girls you would have done it differently"

[Geonz]

http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/

One of the things that I learned as a lifeguard was that there were lots of children being reared oh, rather differently that we'd been reared... and that in all probability this had been happening for generations and society was still plugging along.

[Crankin]

Mimi, I have had that said to me, too. And, it's not true. I raised my boys the way I was raised. If I had had girls, nothing would have changed. Two years later, my kids are still perfectly responsible adults who had a lot of freedom when they were kids!

From the bad working mother,

Robyn

[mimitabby]

Mimi, I have had that said to me, too. And, it's not true. I raised my boys the way I was raised. If I had had girls, nothing would have changed. Two years later, my kids are still perfectly responsible adults who had a lot of freedom when they were kids!

From the bad working mother,

Robyn

EXACTLY

[Jolt]

Maybe one possible solution for some working moms (those who work part-time would have the easiest time doing this) would be to have a sort of co-op with other moms from their neighborhood, church etc. where they work different days and switch off watching each others' kids on days they're not working. Then the kids can play together and have more freedom than they'd have in a regular day care, and parents wouldn't have to pay for child care because it would be a bartering type arrangement. Obviously this would be easier with some jobs than others (I could see it working very well for nurses, for example, but it would be harder with less flexible hours). What do you think?

[cyclinnewbie]

Sorry about that, i couldn't resist. This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I tried very hard to raise my sons with freedom... and most people said to me; "welll, if they were girls you would have done it differently"

Oh Mimi....I have dealt with this very thing!! I have tried really really hard to be equal with my kids (son is 13 and BIG, daughter is 10 and tiny...64 lbs and almost 11 years old)...I think that sometimes you cannot treat them equally. I feel I can send my son out on his bike with his buddies and they can ride up and down the road and I don't need to worry (he is also into martial arts, so has the skills to fend off an attack). My daughter, however, is very small as I noted above, and while she's a tough little chick, she's still a little chick, which sometimes will make you more of a target. I can say this because I'm also a little chick, and it has made me a target. She is not interested in learning how to defend herself (too young I think), so would have to depend on her brain (which is good actually!!). I guess what I'm clumsily trying to say is that I'm not comfortable letting her and her friends ride up and down the road because she's a tiny girl....as much as it pains me to say that. So much for women's lib and equality and all that! She's still my baby.

[shootingstar]

For many of my relatives from China (primarily rural areas), they want to buy a car within a few years after they immigrate here.

A bike is so passe to them. Then later...maybe 2 decades, they realize they are getting abit chubby...their health not as good.

Since my family in Canada couldn't afford to buy a car until I was 15 yrs. old (I am the eldest), I did genuinely associate carlessness, with poverty for a long time.

As a child, I just thought it was abit of a hassle to walk /take bus, particularily in not-so-great weather. The best thing in such situations, is that the parents don't make a super big deal about not having a car. Then children grow up not too self-conscious /whiny about being carless.

I do remember up to gr. 8, the bike racks at school were full of parked bikes.
High school....forget it. Of course, everyone is hell-bent on getting a driver's license, which did include me at the time.

[madscot13]

my parents tried to raise me as a prissy girl- can we say backfire? I think my older brothers had too much say in my upbinging.

ps I am a wonderful daughter.

[Trek420]

Since my family in Canada couldn't afford to buy a car until I was 15 yrs. old (I am the eldest), I did genuinely associate carlessness, with poverty for a long time.

How can that be? Have you seen the price of wool? You have to be rich to do this sport.

That's the odd thing about cycling. Some equate it with poverty but others .... in my poor to lower-workingclass-semi-affordable Bay Area neighborhood I had to stop riding my road bike to work. There seemed such a reaction when I moved here of "what are you doing here". With my commutermobile they don't bat an eye, just another carless person on a mountainbike nobody notices the custom paint and Mavic wheels.

Before when I lived 2 miles away but in the hills even non-cyclists knew "nice bike, nice day for a ride".

Hard question to phrase but it seems part of the issue with getting people to ride is class issues. I've often felt we must show our so called invisible cyclists, working class that "there is a cycling community, you are part of it, this is how we ride. Ride with us"

[mimitabby]

Hard question to phrase but it seems part of the issue with getting people to ride is class issues. I've often felt we must show our so called invisible cyclists, working class that "there is a cycling community, you are part of it, this is how we ride. Ride with us"

This is an issue that we were confronted with on our ride Saturday.
we were in a rough neighborhood and a guy about our age, but who had definitely had a tougher life than us;was walking across the street with his dog, and his beater bike. He deliberately slowed down so that we would have to pause for him and told us to wait, smiling. I smiled back and said hi how ya doing, my husband was disgruntled but let me take the lead that time, because we both know that we need to be allies with guys like him, not adversaries.

[TryToKeepUp]

Kinda sad that kids don't ride bikes to school anymore. Nowadays I hear that parents are afraid the bikes will get stolen! (and they do) Whatever happened to honesty in our country?

My professor was telling me about a recent trip to China. she told us how she noticed none of the many bikes she saw were locked up at all. When she asked a native why there were no locks weren't people worried their bikes would be stolen. the native replied,"Chinese people do not steal."

[shootingstar]

It's interesting to see the reaction of university-educated foreign workers that we have direct from Philippines, India...who are from countries..where cycling is still associated with less money /class...

There are 6 Filipinos, perfectly healthy...who wait around to get a car ride from near where I get off at the bus stop in my long commute. Their car ride is to the work site...it is a 15 minute walk. One of them thought our company should as a courtesy, arrange shuttle bus service. The business manager told them to walk or bike..which offended them.

Now, it's not the prettiest walk, but getting better each month with more paved road and sidewalk for walking as construction progresses. You walk along and face some construction cranes, do see a whole line of mountains ahead of you as sun rises.

On the other hand, there are some German female workers who bike down that road...some without helmets.

There are times I do feel a twinge of low-class whatever...since I am probably one of the very few employees (probably less than 5) out of 200 employees in total, who walk to a bus stop to take a bus. Such twinges come when the weather is wet and it's muddy out. Stupid, eh?