Scooter Arms Race

It started as any arms race does - incremental baby steps that individually seem inconsequential, but collectively turn into a WTH happened?!

During our e-bike trial week, Xavier & Zoe were a bundle of giddy excitement - enthusiastically bellowing "Hello!" to all passing drivers with windows down.

Post purchase, trouble started….

As the driver, our cargo bike is crazy convenient & super fun.   However, the cool factor of being driven on one - as a 9 year old - is a little too 'mini van' for X.  

• About a week in, he began insisting we drop him a block away.
• 2 weeks in, he started making noise about wanting to ride a scooter instead
• 3 weeks in, he used his allowance to buy a flea market scooter

Enter - scooter #1 - basic flea market find

Given the 4 mile path to school, we agreed to a bike there, scooter home model…

(gotta love a bike that can even handle hauling a scooter)

However, 4 miles on a scooter is tough.  

X gave it the college try - made it 2.5 miles the first day, 3 the next.  But it took forever and the rest of the ride (he & Zoe holding the scooter on their laps) was a hot mess of "his scooter is SQUISHING me!"

Enter - scooter #2 - Who knew blue electric….

I never knew these even existed - but saw a guy driving an e-skateboard - so turned to the all knowing…..Amazon.

Found an electric scooter: solid reviews, 9mph speed, good for kids 8+ & on Amazon Prime.   Bought the least expensive one - the e90 Razor.

Xavier was thrilled 

He has mastered it - rides parallel to us on sidewalks on busy streets, joins in the bike lane on wide streets.

Zoe however, suddenly became surly - the "it's NOT fair" and "he won't let me ride it" broke me.   Instead of using good parenting judgement or take turns logic, I once again, turned to Amazon….

Enter scooter #3 - didn't mean to increase power red….

We picked this one from my tiny phone screen, based on color.  

What I didn't realize, until it showed up, is there are varied levels of power & speed.   

Turns out the e100 goes 10mph & is significantly larger.

Now Zoe's giddy & Xavier's pissed.

(shown scooter Trick or Treating)

My lesson for the day - if you are going to turn to Amazon to solve your problems, be sure to read the fine print - and with 3 kids it's NEVER going to be fair!