2.5 yo ds will run circles around me all day, but will not walk from A to B!

[matana]

Really just wondered how common this is and whether we should be dealing with it differently.

Ds is the most active child I know. In shops he bolts in the opposite direction, hates sitting ina trolley or his buggy and says he wants to walk. When we let him, he fiddles with everything and runs everywhere until we get so sick of it that we sit him in a trolley anyway and he shouts "up, out, mummy!" At home he climbs, runs, fiddles with anything and everything yet has no attention span for playing with toys. He doesn't even watch tv. He loves beinv outdoors and is high energy.

So why the hell do we have such difficulty just getting him to do a short walk to the local shop without him demanding "lift up please" constantly? We try to make it fun, have races etc but all he does is stand in front of us and begin crying until we carry him or put him in his buggy if we have it with us.

I don't understand how he can be so active except when we need him to be. He's so lazy!

Is this normal? Tips please!

[debbie1412]

Sounds completely normal. Ds 2.6 doesn't stop until we go out waking then he just stands still and whines to be picked up .

[mistlethrush]

Our ds learned at a very young age that he could either walk or go in the buggy and if he held out his arms for him to be picked up, I would pick him up, give him a hug and put him back down again - I would not walk a step with him (unless to put him in the buggy). We also had a balance bike that we had for the park (I wouldn't have let him ride it on the pavements until he was older).

[matana]

When we have the buggy we do say to him that he either walks or goes in the buggy and we stick to that. But we don't always take it with us...

[marzipananimal]

Mine is the same. Drives me mad! No advice I'm afraid though but I need some, especially with baby no2 on the way

[CousinArnold]

Exactly what Mistlethrush says. It means sometimes you will take the buggy and not use it, but this technique is paying off with DS who is 2.4. He generally always chooses walking over the buggy, and the distances he will walk are gradually increasing. We use one of those backpacks-with-reins so he can't run off (although it took a bit of getting used to) and try not to be in too much of a hurry so he can stop and pick up sticks (current favourite thing) along the way!

[matana]

Apparently this morning his CM made him walk home from the park even though he wanted to go in the buggy because another child was using the buggy who was poorly today and physically couldn't do the walk. It's a double buggy and a baby was using the other seat. DS had been running around like a mad thing while at the park, climbing on everything and being active. When it came to walking home DS screamed, tantrumed and protested very loudly the whole way home. He does this thing where he literally shakes and screams so high and loud that you think he'll burst his vocal chords - i have never seen such a strong willed child. He'll also drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes. CM says he's capable of the walk, but just wants everyone to know he's not happy about it. Apparently he did that all the way home. Part of me wonders if i'm expecting too much from him. I mean, how far can toddlers this age walk? He does walk short distances. However our local shop is maybe 0.5km away, which he struggles with. The CM's local park is about the same distance....i wonder if i'm judging distance more by what is 'walkable' by an adult rather than a toddler. Anyone?

[mistlethrush]

When just 4, DS walked 7 miles quite happily - we took snacks and drinks and had little sits down on the way, but we had no complaints and he was quite happy all the way. At 2.5 he was certainly walking 2 miles quite happily.