My four year-old son doesn’t like water.  He’ll drink it all right, but if it’s on his face, forget it.  And pools?  Please.

So he caught me off guard when we were driving past Lake Shawnee one day, and he took a sudden, intense interest in the colorful paddleboats.  “I want to ride in one of those!”  Really? Did you notice that they’re floating in water?

I talked to him some more about it, and gave him more opportunities to see the boats churning around in their arm of the lake.  Do you want to do that with Daddy?  “Yes!”

I called up the marina, and found out that they allowed children three and over.  Perfect.  We went that Saturday.

We got there, and paid $3 for a half-hour.  He looked a little smug in his new lifevest when I had to take one of the dorky, ill-fitting public flotation devices.  But I wondered if the money and my pride would be spent well.  I’ve seen him become afraid and back out of events enough times that I half expected it to happen this time.  We went down the stairs.  Across the bridge to the pier.  Into the boat.  Okay.

The boats are very simple.  You pump pedals (by yourself, if you’re with a four year-old) to move forward or backward, and steer by moving a metal ring left or right.  I unhooked a cable, and we were free to back out into the lake.

I was watching him for signs of anxiety.  So much of this was new to him: the bouncing and rocking of the boat, the sun reflecting off the water.  He was smiling, fascinated by it all.  I, however, was splitting my attention between worrying that he would fall in the water, and worrying that my phone would fall out of my pocket, into the water.  The anxious one in the boat turned out to be me.

So here’s my prescription for that:  Pedal like a mad person.  Circle one of the lake’s buoys with your boat.  Your body will become tired enough that its priorities will change.  ‘Fear’ will take a back seat to ‘breathing’.  And you can get back to enjoying this moment with your kid.

The Lake Shawnee Marina is open weekends 9 AM to 6PM until September 27^th.

[August 2010 | Cale Herreman]

Find Cale on Twitter: http://twitter.com/caleherreman