To make my son walk to nursery?

[SugaryBits]

DS is 3 1/2. It is about 10-15 minute walk to nursery. Up until now I have let him go in the pushchair. He may walk a little but with end up crying and asking to go in the pushchair. I have told him when he goes back to nursery on Thursday, he will be walking. He is not happy. We walked round to a friends house today. He cried for the whole three minutes it took to get there. He said he had a leg/tummy/arm/head ache.

So AIBU to expect him to walk? Should I let him sit in the pushchair for a while longer or is 3 1/2 old enough to expect him to walk for 10-15 minutes?

ds3 is 2 walks for hours if he is enjoying himself, it is a lot harder to get him to walk if we are going somewhre he is not very interested in. do you have a park or something fun within 15 minutes walking distance? rather than fight over the morning walk i would start off going somewhere nice every day so you know he can def do it and he gets used to walking

Blimey! I have the opposite problem with my DD. She's just turned two and since she's been able to walk (about a year), that's all she wants to do. Well, I say walk, it starts off as a sort of unco-ordinated run where she has to say hello to EVERYTHING...'hello bird' 'hello man' 'hello grass' 'hello brick'
Amusing but wearying!
Is the not wanting to walk a stage most of them go through?

Ds rode his plastic ride on for a while, then his trike, and now his bike or scooter. I lost the pram at 2.5.

Dad picked him up in the car though.

Ds can walk for over an hour up a mountain - but hates flat pavements, he's much happier when he's riding or pushing something.

IMO small children are like dogs - they find it easier to run than to walk. I can usually keep dd1 going on a long walk by getting her to run instead.

[twentypence, keep an eye out, I'm going to put up another christchurch meetup thread as soon as I've sorted out my appointments, but will be in your neck of the woods around 1 May if you're keen for a coffee.]

I'll try not to let ds get a lurgy - it would be great to catch up.

I agree that having a race could work. (to the OP, I don't fancy racing welliemum).

i think he should walk - it's hard work pushing a 3 and a half year old in a pushchair!

Get him to run, skip, hop to keep him occupied, also make sure he has a drink, my dd1 is always very thirsty after nursery.

I agree that he is old enough to walk/cycle/scoot, for at least some of the journeys.

Another thing that sometimes helps is to suggest walking in different ways, eg "Can you walk like a king with your head held high?" "Let's stomp like a dinosaurs" "Let's flutter like butterflies." One time my dd1 walked sideways like a crab all the way home from nursery.

I can top that! My ds1 is 4 yrs (and a bit) and still refuses to walk. I have visions of taking him to school in a pushchair (max. 15 mins walk) in September ...but no, I must be strong and make him walk!! Otherwise he will make himself an immediate bullying target.

Ask him to collect things, sticks are a fave in our family, or to drop little stones down the drain grid to hear the plop!
We walk down the back alleys and away from the traffic so we can look at plants, flowers, listen to the birds. We have posters on the wall and books we can look in later.
The children know where we'll see a cat on the wall, which dog will bark behind a gate etc etc.

When you are in an early morning rush it will be harder to do these things so walk home too and start building a routine.
You know that it will be good for him, not just exercise but being aware of the world around him.

Maybe there'll be builders or roadworks, it was a highlight for us when the Gas pipes were replaced.
I am beginning to think I need to spend more time with adults!!

AH Yes!! The walking thing Ds (2.5) does this. Sometimes he will walk a long way (half an hour or more) other times he just won't. His way of avoiding walking when he doesn't want to this is to just collapse on the floor and lie on the pavement.

I alternate between waiting it out (can take up to 30mins and I get quite a lot of weird looks as I stand in silence by a toddler who is lying on his side curled up with his thumb in his mouth in the middle of the pavement) or cracking and carrying him or strapping him in the pushchair (depending on if I have the pushchair with me)

The worst is when he won't walk (does the lying down thing) and won't go in the pushchair either.

He screams inconsolably that he wants to walk then collapses on the ground as he refuses to walk. I then strap him in the pushchair while he screams that he wants to walk and eventually take him out again 10 mins later when he is still screaming and promises to walk nicely and down he goes again and the whole cyle goes on ad nauseum until I get fed up and I push him home screaming all the way.

Last time he did this it took us one and a half hours to walk to the park (usually 10 mins if ds in pushchair and 30mins if he walks some of the way). By the time we got there we had to come home straightaway again.

Sorry I have no answers for you just sympathy. As others have said I'd try an compromise with him and maybe encourage him to wlak there but push him back when he is tried after a busy nursery session. Hark at me giving advice when I am so far away form solving the problem myself - good luck

I also agree with the poster who said running is sometimes easier. Ds loves to rub holding my hand and will go aften much further like that than just walking.

I agree that you are not being unreasonable with the walking my DS has been doing hour long walks since he was 3 - admitedly the fact that he was walking Grandma's dogs helped alot! However I would just ask, without meaning to cause any worry, does he have any problems when say running around in the park or garden - it is just I had arthritis when I was little and before it was diagonosed I would behave like this on a walk.

I don't think you're being unreasonable expecting him to walk. My dd1 had to walk everywhere from 15 months as dd2 arrived & I couldn't afford a double buggy (this was 13 years ago so have no idea if you got buggy boards etc back then). Thankfully she'd been walking since 10 months! Now dd3 is just past 2 & wants to walk everywhere. I have a P&T with the doubles kit as ds is just 5 months & when I took the wheel in to the bike shop to get it fixed (yet another bloody puncture ) I had ds in the sling & dd3 on the reins. We had to leave the wheel & come back so dd3 spent 4 hours traipsing around the town with me & she loved it. Now we have to practically fold her in half to get her in the buggy & when she's having a strop it takes 2 of us - one to hold her down & one to do up the straps! It's getting so I can only use the buggy on days out at the weekends when dh is there to help.