The Childish Weeks are over and I think they were a huge success! 1 toddler, 10 children and 1 teenager participated, along with around 20 adults. While everything went well, there were some challenges and some things that should be improved next time. The weeks were prepared well, but not necessarily prepared right. In this blog post I want to reflect how I experienced the weeks as a parent with a toddler, but also as an organizer, and what we could do better next time. I hope that some other participants with different perspectives will publish their reflections as well.…

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The paved part of the former railway ended exactly at our sleeping place in Sjövik. Afterwards, the cycle route would turn north to find its way back into the valley of the Göta älv river towards Trollhättan. This national cycle route was now following a very busy road. We did not know this in advance, as we had simply assumed a national cycle route would follow child-friendly bike paths, but we had not checked it outselves. Somewhat luckily, one family had left us this morning, and now only one toddler on a child’s seat and one child with their own…

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We woke up to a really windy and cold day on the lake in Göteborg. Our communal space was on a rocky peninsula reaching into the lake and completely exposed to the winds. Things kept flying away, and it felt like the wind was stressing us to leave. During the route planning it became clear that with our new daily distance of 15 km and still one rest day per two cycling days, we wouldn’t be able to make it to Trollhättan on time. This did not seem like a big issue, as few people are joining in this last part…

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Our sleeping place in Göteborg was about 5 km outside the city limits on the shore of Lilla Desjön lake. It was the perfect mix of being close to the city but not having that many people around. There were picnic benches, a fireplace and a toilet. In the day, some people came around by bike, by walk or by boat, but at night we were alone. The only downside of the place was the long uphill to get there when returning from the city, but at least that kept us fit on the rest days. We decided to have two…

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From Östra Nedsjön lake, some people decided to change our original route along the train line Borås–Göteborg and instead divert north via Floda and then Gråbo. It had turned out that for the children cycling themselves, any amount of car traffic was making the ride harder. Staying motivated the whole way was already a struggle, and when the route was not so beautiful and adventurous, when they had to cycle in a straight line, when they couldn’t spontaneously stop to pick some berries that they had spotted on the side of the road, motivation was even lower. The rural roads…

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On the evening of the 1st of August, the Biketour arrived in Borås for the start of the Childish Weeks. In this experiment, which we are doing for the first time, the coming two weeks of the Biketour have been organized to especially focus on the needs of children. Some parents and their children had already arrived the night before and found a suitable campsite in Borås. Others arrived over the coming days. There are now 11 children with their own bicycles and one toddler who is travelling on a child’s seat, along with around 20 adults on the tour.…

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