Luke has not learned to take good care things under his custodian. He tends to break of lose them.
That’s the reason why his parents do not buy him a new bicycle, among other things.
He has to use his sister’s girly, pinky bike.
Things change one day as his father, Phil, decides it’s time for Luke to have a new bicycle of his own.
It’s time for him to teach Luke about responsibility.
He takes Luke to a bicycle shop and buys him a bicycle.
But to his disappointment, only after 10 minutes the bicycle changes hands, Phil spots his son’s bike parked recklessly at a lamp post outside a shop.
Wanting to teach Luke a lesson of responsibility, Phil takes the bike away and makes it looks like the bike is stolen.
On his way home, Phil bumps into his neighbor and the neighbor asks for his help. He parks the bike at the pavement before he enters his neighbor’s house to help her fix something.
Here’s the exciting part: He realizes the bike is missing when he comes out from his neighbor’s house minutes later.
The story is getting more complicated. To make long story short, when Luke is home and Phil wants to question him about his promise of being a responsible person.
To Phil’s amazement, in fact Luke does not lose his bicycle. It only dawns on Phil that the bike he has taken home is not Luke’s.
It’s someone else’s bike! Phil quickly puts the bike back to where he took it.
The story may sound funny and dramatic.
It should be because this story is taken from one of the first few episodes of TV series Modern Family.
As dramatic as it may sound, this episode teaches us one important lesson: TRUST.
We have to trust our children that they are able to do what they’re supposed to do – without intervention from parents.
Being distrust of your child, you rob him of the opportunity to learn and be independent. And more seriously, it tends to make simple things into complicated things as depicted by the story of Luke and Phil.
Trust is one important ingredient of empowering your child.
For other ingredients of empowerment, they can be found in The Nonconformist’s Guide to Parenting.
To see if it’s your cup of tea, hop on to a bike and cycle to:
