Creativity trumps stubbornness

We took an after-supper bike ride last week on a beautiful evening. Chester had promised Bennet that we'd "go see the horses" (a bit over a mile away, on a dirt road). So we all got ready to go - Lisel and Jo in the trailer (since their Lisel's bike doesn't go fast enough for a family ride, and Jo is still on a trike). But Matt, being his usual stubborn self, was determined to ride his own bike.

I volunteered to just take him around the block while Dad took the others. Chester, though, had a better solution that didn't require a long drawn-out fight. He merely strapped Matt's bike into the bike trailer seat belt. The girls generally don't use the seat belts anyway, they had already perched themselves on the top. (This may look dangerous, but at the pace we travel on bike, it's a lot safer than, say, their playing in our treehouse). Matt was pretty mad at first, thinking that he'd "lost" a battle. But once we were riding, boy did he ever have fun.