A while ago, on an evening after dinner, I took my two girls for a bike ride. They are 3 and 6, and they were snugly squished into the bike trailer attached to my bike.
As I speedily traversed the cycle lanes in our neighbourhood, I thought a lot about the fact that biking together has to be one of my absolute favourite “co-occupations”.
And parenting is absolutely chocka-block with “co-occupations”.
Feeding
Rocking your baby to sleep
Babywearing
Changing diapers
Adventuring together
Gardening together
Playing with a ball together
I started biking with my kids more regularly in the lockdowns.
And I found it SUCH an enjoyable activity. I don’t have a flash bike, it’s about 15 years old from The Warehouse and it’s got rust specks and the tyres go flat more often than they should.
But, it’s enough to give me a sense of freedom.
And that sense of freedom is the essence of why cycling is such a cup-filling co-occupation for me and my kids.
When I go with my big boys, we go really fast and race each other (they win).
When we go as a family, we notice things in our neighbourhood together. We communicate with each other in a different way, and we experience a different sort of freedom that we don’t when we are pushing the buggy on a family walk.
Textbook definition – co-occupations occur when people perform an occupation in a mutually responsive, physical and emotional interconnected manner.
Available for you to work your way through at your own pace, this course helps Maxed-Out Mama's of 2 - 8 year olds make key shifts to bring in more independent play, joy, and regulation for the whole household.