How much do you push?

I planned a tubing trip for Thursday. Seriously, the water level is 3 ft deep (my son is 4ft tall), the river flows 0.4MPH, and there are no rapids. The water slides at sesame place are MUCH faster than this tube trip. My oldest informed me he is too scared to go tubing. I know he isn't scared but he is tired but now that he's said this, he will cling to it until I cancel the trip. Also, he is going through a phase where he wants to just watch TV and do nothing if given the choice (he does not have that choice). He told me he was too scared to ride his bike without training wheels (he now rides just fine after a little pushing). So, how much pushing would you do?

 

I push. If it's not something that's going to terrify them for the rest of their lives, or harm them in any way, I definitely push and I can't tell you a time I have regretted it and they didn't have a blast in a situation like this.

 

I push. I really kind of HAVE to. But like your son .. if given the choice .. they wouldn't go anywhere either. I really had to do some convincing to get them both on certain rides at the amusement park .. but once they did it they loved it ! Although they still ride with training wheels.
You just have to know your childs limits .. like how far you CAN push without them having a meltdown.

 

Thanks, I know he will like it once we go but OMG, its like pulling teeth some times

 

We push. Growing up my parents never pushed me to do things out of my (small) comfort zone, and I am still working on overcoming fears and pushing myself to do things as an adult. I don't want my girls to grow up that way.

 

We push. In that situation, we would definitely push. They are rarely allowed to just sit around watching TV or doing nothing. If too much of that is going on I send them outside.

 

Ditto this. My twins can be very reluctant to try things so pushing can be a good thing (although I prefer to call it encouragement ). I agree also with the pp's who said it's about knowing your child and their limits, if you know he will enjoy it then it's worth the effort of pushing him to try. I'd just tell him what you put in the first part of your post; that he will be able to stand up in the water, it won't be strong enough currents to knock him over, and he's been on faster slides before that he enjoyed and wasn't scared on.

Hope you all have fun!

 

I need a son who is not as stubborn as I am.

I went up and told him about the water depth and he calmed down and is now excited about tubing. Wait until I take him horseback riding in a couple of weeks...

 

Glad he is OK with it! We push too. (I tend to want to give in, because I was a fraidy-cat child and hated being pushed -- but it would probably have been good for me if I had been pushed more often! DH always wants to push because he wants our kids to have lots of new & exciting experiences, and so far at least, he's usually been right.)