Memories, bike rodeos and the guilt of parents

My dad had taken me there to buy my sister her first real boombox — you know, the one where you could have two cassette tapes side by side so you could play and record new stuff at the same time? And then you know how you had to go to the section on the left side of the building that had linoleum flooring instead of carpet to pick up your larger boxed items? Yeah, that’s still there. 

I also got flashbacks of standing around the giant TV wall forever, watching whatever game or movie was showing. Pretty sure that activity has migrated to Costco these days. 

There are a lot of kids taking ballet and dance classes. It was wonderful! And everywhere you looked, there were parents waiting around for their kids to be finished with their class, many of them on their laptops trying to get that one thing done before they had to context shift to being super parent again. On a Saturday morning.

With or without a flood of memories of days long gone, Saturdays and Sundays are when so many parents these days who have payroll Monday through Friday jobs often feel like we are working harder on the weekends than during the week. There’s a bit of guilt there I’m sure — you want to make the most of the time you have together because most of the weekdays are filled with professional commitments and it’s hard to impossible to make it to those after school activities and PTA events. And at the same time, it also sort of feels like the work work is never really over. It simply looms over you like some ominous shadow that won’t let you have any real fun until that little “one more thing” is actually done. It’s OK, I see you. 

But when the weekend hits, as exhausted as we all are, it is the block of time that us “9 to 5” (or really 8:30 to 6, let’s be honest) working parents have to make those core memories and explore the world around us. So, we have recently committed to being outdoors more than indoors, and taking advantage of the fact that we live in this incredible place called the Bay Area. Maybe it’s going on a hike, or a trip to the zoo, visiting the USS Hornet in Oakland, biking to the library or heading to a local community event like the city of San Mateo’s Bike Rodeo that took place this past Saturday. Put on by city staff, the Bike Rodeo is an annual event that promotes safe and fun bicycle riding for all.

Full transparency, we very sadly were not able to make it to the bike rodeo as we were at “preballet,” but Move San Mateo team lead Max Mautner shared that there was a great turnout with around 100 minors who joined in on the fun, a busy e-bike demonstration station, face painting, a SMPD led neighborhood bike ride, and local shop owner Tony Pereira from Straight Wheel Cycling doing bicycle safety checks. 

Congratulations are in order to Pereira for recently receiving the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Summit Professional of the Year Award. As an aside, I had just a few weeks prior met Tony for the first time when he came to pick up my e-bike to replace a tire and fix a few spokes in another wheel. I was referred to him by my neighbor who is an avid cyclist. Just another little reminder at how so much of the business of small businesses happens through word of mouth and community engagement. 

And with all of the things that we as parents do to help our kids make sense of, learn to navigate and enjoy this increasingly complex world we live in, so many parents still live with this unrelenting guilt that they aren’t doing enough. Maybe in the end, it will simply have to be, because that’s life. And in San Mateo County, life is still pretty darn good here. 

Annie Tsai is chief operating officer at Interact (tryinteract.com), early stage investor and advisor with The House Fund (thehouse.fund), and a member of the San Mateo County Housing and Community Development Committee. Find Annie on Twitter @meannie.