Carson has been well overdue for a “big boy bike” for some time now, so our plan has been to purchase one for his 4th birthday. Well, the boy chose a bike months ago, and his birthday is next week. The problem? I have yet to bring myself to purchase the chosen bicycle because, y’all, it’s so ugly. I have tried my hardest to push every other kind of bike on him, yet despite offers of Lightning McQueen and Spiderman and all sorts of other bells and whistles, he has not budged.

Behold The Shark Bike. As you can plainly see, we have multicolored tires and a vicious looking shark head to greet innocent bystanders. Oh, but it’s not just any shark head… “it’s a shark head pouch! and I can put so many things in it like rocks and nature and Hot Wheels and my water bottle and anything I want, mama!” I think my child’s a hoarder. But I digress.

So, I had a huge turning point last night as I mentioned to Matt that our child has a birthday in T-5 days and we have yet to purchase his gift. Because, uh, I can’t handle being seen with the kid with the tackiest bike on the block. But alas, Matt helped me realize what I had known deep down all along. We have to get the Ugly Bike for our kid. Because what the heck- if Carson thinks he’s hot stuff as he zooms along on one blue wheel and one red, then so be it. And if Matt also wants to gift him with the equally ridiculous matching shark helmet, then what’s the worst that can happen? We have an absolutely ecstatic child.

Matt thinks this is hilarious. “When Carson grows up, we can’t really make fun of him for getting beat up by three year olds in his preschool class. But we can make fun of his decision to ride The Ugly Shark Bike.” That man of mine is just so loving and compassionate.

And me? I’m giving myself a pat on the back for letting go a little and realizing that some things are just not important. At all.

So, if you happen to be driving through my neighborhood any time soon (which I kinda hope you don’t. because that would be way creepy.) and you see a gigantic shark head driving down the street, make sure you check out the expression on the kid behind the handlebars. I can pretty much guarantee that there will be a huge grin on that face of his.