[mohshee]

I tried explaing to my mom about DH today on the phone. But she thinks I am out of my mind for wanting to do it. She can be a pretty adventurous person, but within reason. This conversation is pretty repetative in our relationship, and I find that I usually don't even mention riding to her much anymore. Especially when something goes wrong and I hurt myself. Of course, when I get off the phone I have to ask myself, 'Why do I do it'? The obvious reason being 'Because I freakin' love it'.

Ugh. I guess it might help too if I had friends who rode around here. Especially girls. Talking to my mom can so put a damper in my spirits :wonky2:

 

[zoey]

I don't think my mom would get it either. I don't usually mention in great detail my mountain biking adventures because it's less worry for them. I just tell them that I ride and leave it at that.

 

[amydalayna]

my mom has never seen me race, but i always send her pictures. she's super proud. she sends the pictures to all of her friends. but i'm not saying she really 'gets' it.

she's actually more concerned about my snow activities. i've already broken myself pretty bad snowboarding and that makes her worry. she's also worried i'll get swept away in a big avalanche.

my mother in law is actually cool with it too. the in-laws just came out last week for a visit and they came out to watch me race bmx. she overheard someone in the stands say i'd be even faster if i was on a cruiser (i race a p1) and she said she'd like to help me pay to get a 24incher for my bday/xmas.

 

[laura]

my mom knows i raced dh but i don't think she quite understands what DH really is, even what XC is, but she knows i ride it, and really like it.

Her and my dad just bought some retirement land and she is constantly going on and on about the trails they cleared (with a bobcat) that me and TN could ride bikes on. Its really sweet. She wanted to make it to a race but she never did. I think if I make next season, I may have to make her come to a race. Just so she can really see.

 

[stephanie]

my mom knows i raced dh but i don't think she quite understands what DH really is, even what XC is, but she knows i ride it, and really like it.

Ditto...this is exactly how I would describe my mom, too. Funny because I didn't know until I was in my late teens that in her late teens/early 20s, she was a pretty avid roadie. While I prefer to take my wheels off-road for a majority of the time, it's nice to know I "got something else from her" other than still getting acne as a 27 year-old, etc. I felt oddly good when I found out she used to ride. She's seen pics of me, but never seen me race in person. And to tell you the truth, she probably wouldn't really "get it" but it's actually my Grandma I'd be worried about...she'd chew me an earful!:love:

 

[GrapeApe79]

Its good to know that someone else has the same issue! My mom cringes every time I talk about it and thinks I'm crazy. Its sucks to not be able to share something that you love so much with your own mom. My mom is just too old school in her ways.

 

[MudGrrl]

I broke my mom in years ago...

I went caving and mountain biking when I was 18.
She was a little freaked out by both...

Then I joined the Air Force, got familiar with weapons, learned how to rig different kinds of explosives ( I blew up a truck), went skydiving, learned how to rappel, learned how to rock climb, and now I'm training for a marathon....

My mom now just tells me to have fun.
I did make sure to call her pretty directly after skydiving, to make sure she knew I made it and to tell her how cool it was.
I think she delights in telling people what her children are up to, and reactions to our lil adventures are usually met with "my goodness, what won't they do?"

Here's a pic of me in a cave in W. Va. There's about a 30 ft drop behind me... You can climb up it without rope, but I have the little rope because I am scared of heights (it's kinda like my blankie):

Here are two more pics of things that I have gone through, but the pic isn't of me:

 

[TreeSaw]

my mom has never seen me race, but i always send her pictures. she's super proud. she sends the pictures to all of her friends. but i'm not saying she really 'gets' it.

she's actually more concerned about my snow activities. i've already broken myself pretty bad snowboarding and that makes her worry. she's also worried i'll get swept away in a big avalanche.

my mother in law is actually cool with it too. the in-laws just came out last week for a visit and they came out to watch me race bmx. she overheard someone in the stands say i'd be even faster if i was on a cruiser (i race a p1) and she said she'd like to help me pay to get a 24incher for my bday/xmas.

Same here...not sure my mother gets it but she's super supportive and my inlaws are coming to our race this weekend so that's cool (although it's not really to see us race, but more to see the baby )

 

[Snacks]

What is caving?

Awesome shots

 

[laura]

FVCK that, I am terrified of stuff like that. debilitating fear would describe it more appropriately. More power to you for being able to handle preasure like that.

 

[greg447]

When i broke my back at Whistler my Mom finally sat down and talked to me about riding....of course about how i should quite but she finally gave in when i explained to her about how much i love riding. My Dad's always been supportive and cool.

 

[stephanie]

okay, the pic of being down in that tube looks TERRIFYING! props for doing that!

 

[MudGrrl]

What is caving?

Spelunking.
It's where you put a light on your head, 2 forms of ID in your pocket (so they can identify the body, just in case), something to eat (again, for emergency purposes), and go climbing/ rappelling/ crawling/ swimming around in caves. It's basically underground adventure.

I belong to the National Speleological Society.

This is one of the places I have been (there are four people in this room.... just to give you an idea of how big it is):

Sometimes you do stuff like this:

And sometimes you do stuff like this:

 

[MudGrrl]

okay, the pic of being down in that tube looks TERRIFYING! props for doing that!

I like small spaces.



And that is actually sideways.... so.. you're not fighting against gravity.

 

[MudGrrl]

But .. back to the original topic


my mom doesn't freak out when I tell her about anything I do.

When I called her about my crash last year (nothing serious, just some asphalt in the arm... nice scars), my mom was fine.

 

[zoey]

Geez oh pete, those pictures actually gave me goosebumps. Mudgrrl, I am impressed. I could never, ever, EVER do that. I'm still freaked at the thought of going to planet granite and climbing an indoor wall!

 

[stephanie]

I like small spaces.



And that is actually sideways.... so.. you're not fighting against gravity.

Nope, that didn't make it seem any less terrifying

MudGrrl, I'm very impressed by your subturranean/spelunking adventures!

 

[GrapeApe79]

MudGrrl, have you heard of blackwater rafting in New Zealand? If not, you NEED to google it! You'd dig it!

 

[sunnerbeanmtb]

:nuts:

 

[Snacks]

Yep. She went to a few of my XC races, and a few of the boyfriend's DH races, but she won't go to any of mine. When I broke my collar bone she was pretty worried, so when I broke my leg and arm I waited a bit before telling her

She just wants me to have fun.

 

[Velocity Girl]

Took my mom a bit to truly warm up to the idea of my downhilling and it took her about 3-4 years before she actually said she wanted to come see me race. So her next trip out to see me we planned it for a race weekend and she had a blast I actually thought her seeing people crash and what not would freak her out but she said after seeing what I could do on my bike...the drops, jumps, rocks... that although dangerous, she knew I could handle myself and was having a ball doing it! She even ended up having to take Freak to the hospital for a broken arm that first race and still wanted to come watch another!

I of course have sent her a ton of pictures but she has one of me from my very first race up on the piano with tons of pics of the family. I happen to have 4 brothers and people always ask her which of her sons is in the picture to which she just smiles and tells them proudly that it's her daughter


Oh and Mudgrrl...very cool pics!

 

[altagirl]

my mom has never seen me race, but i always send her pictures. she's super proud. she sends the pictures to all of her friends. but i'm not saying she really 'gets' it.

she's actually more concerned about my snow activities. i've already broken myself pretty bad snowboarding and that makes her worry. she's also worried i'll get swept away in a big avalanche.

Same here. I think my mom "gets" skiing a little more, and therefore percieves it as more dangerous. Even though I send her pictures of me riding DH, I think it's somewhat incomprehensible.

And I'm not allowed to tell her about any future plans for skiing or riding (despite that that's every weekend and a good number of weekdays...) because she's told me she doesn't want to know so she won't worry about it. I just tell her after I've done stuff.

After my first knee injury, both of my parents told me they were VERY HAPPY that I had torn my ACL because that meant I would never be doing that crazy stuff again and would just do normal things. Yeah right. I'm now recovering from my 4th knee surgery and still doing all the skiing and mountain biking I've always done. And they're bummed that I'm not living my life on the sofa.

 

[MudGrrl]

I of course have sent her a ton of pictures but she has one of me from my very first race up on the piano with tons of pics of the family. I happen to have 4 brothers and people always ask her which of her sons is in the picture to which she just smiles and tells them proudly that it's her daughter

That is funny!

In a very piss-off-just-because-I-have-ovaries-doesn't-mean-I'm-a-puss kind of way.

 

[MudGrrl]

And they're bummed that I'm not living my life on the sofa.

Couldn't you just, I dunno, find new and exciting ways to prepare food and mop floors instead of riding a *gasp* bike?


You all know we're gonna be the 90 year old women who can still walk/ run/ ride while all the other women who took life 'easy' and are the same age are going to be stuck in bed at a nursing home.

I wanna be the 70 year old woman who constantly kicks my @ss at 10ks.....

 

[altagirl]

Couldn't you just, I dunno, find new and exciting ways to prepare food and mop floors instead of riding a *gasp* bike?


You all know we're gonna be the 90 year old women who can still walk/ run/ ride while all the other women who took life 'easy' and are the same age are going to be stuck in bed at a nursing home.

I wanna be the 70 year old woman who constantly kicks my @ss at 10ks.....

You know one of those too? I ran a half marathon once, and got my butt kicked in the last half mile by a 65+ year old woman.


And refreshingly, while I was in at physical therapy the other day, I was feeling a little frustrated and wondering aloud if maybe I shouldn't start taking it a little easier. My therapist said no. Despite what everyone says, the worst cases she sees are the ones who gave up sports because of an injury. They go and become vegetables "protecting their knees" by sitting on the sofa. And they lose all their muscle - then when they're older, their joints are a disaster. No muscle to keep bone off of bone and it's so hard to do ANYTHING once you've deteriorated that far. She said no matter how many knee surgeries I end up with, I'm better off getting right back at it and continuing to be active than trying to protect myself.

So yay!

 

[Velocity Girl]

That is funny!

In a very piss-off-just-because-I-have-ovaries-doesn't-mean-I'm-a-puss kind of way.

Hehehe...completely!!! I love the fact that she's proud of the sport I "play". In fact I was just talking to my mom about it last night and told her how much I appreciated that while growing up she nevered worried about me getting hurt just because I was a girl. I was allowed to bang and cut myself just as much as the boys

I still have to call her at the end of every weekend though to let her know that I'm safe from whatever activity it was we were doing (especially if it's any sort of racing). Just gives her piece of mind. One of my older brothers rides ATVs as well and the only reason she worries about me more is because she knows I take more risks on them than he does

 

[starrbabes]

Wow, those pics are great!

 

[SuperKat]

My Mom doesn't get it either. She knows she can't stop me but I don't think she's super supportive of it. She said she would come to Diablo and watch but it's a tough sport for spectators. I send her pictures and put them on the fridge and what not.
She always says to not over do it. I guess that's about being a Mom though, right?
Are there any Moms here?

 

[Capt. Jack Sparrow]

Couldn't you just, I dunno, find new and exciting ways to prepare food and mop floors instead of riding a *gasp* bike?


You all know we're gonna be the 90 year old women who can still walk/ run/ ride while all the other women who took life 'easy' and are the same age are going to be stuck in bed at a nursing home.

I wanna be the 70 year old woman who constantly kicks my @ss at 10ks.....

Great quote.

My mom was flat-out angry when I started downhilling. 1) Because riding was all I made time for, which left less time for me to hang with her, and 2) because she was very worried for me.

She cried when I told her I broke my thumb in race practice (2004). It was hard to see her in such pain over my broken bone. I have almost always hidden my injuries, but I could not hide the busted-up thumb.

On the upside, she's got a picture of me racing displayed on the piano (as someone else mentioned her mom did) and she showed everyone she knew this magazine when I wrote the cover story of a Mid-Atlantic bike magazine... I could tell she was really proud of me for that.

 

[hayden]

hey cave person im too lazy to see what your name is. where do you cave what groto are you a member to? im in the tri trogs in raligh nc im the youngest sertafied nss member at 14 i cave on a regular baces its good to see a caver/biker i thought there were only like 10 of us.

 

[thruster]

MUDGRRL
That is just plain crazy. I will stick to the above ground stuff.

 

[dhchix]

My parents and In-Laws have come out to support us at our local race which is nothing extreme and they seemed to enjoy it. Of course during my race run I hit a tree right in from on them all and my mom was freaked out. She was concerned but I assured her I was fine. My family doesn't understand why we are more focused on riding bikes instead of making babies.

 

[sunny]

So when I raced the US Open, about 3 hours before my race run, I sliced open my hand in a crash in the berms. I had to get 6 stitches (waited till after my race run to do it). Later on, when I called my mom to tell her about the race, I told her about my crash and that I had to go get stitches.

Her response, "Wow. So, how's the bike?"

I love this woman. You can't make up stuff like that.

 

[luvz2ridez]

My family doesn't understand why we are more focused on riding bikes instead of making babies.

Ya, mine would like to know that too, but I'm having way too much fun riding right now!:biggrin:

 

[dhchix]

Ya, mine would like to know that too, but I'm having way too much fun riding right now!:biggrin:

Glad to see I'm not the only one faced with that question. Have fun riding as I plan on doing the same.

 

[luvz2ridez]

Glad to see I'm not the only one faced with that question. Have fun riding as I plan on doing the same.

Yup, I get it every time on my weekly call to my mom on the east coast. Ya, not ready for the baby thing yet, having too much fun!

 

[chuky]

...I just try not to send pics of anything that requires a full-face...