Park Runs: Children - Why?

[Knowillbeflamed]

There’s a park run every Sunday near me. They jog along the pavement by the seafront taking the whole damn thing up so no one else can even walk along it.

Honestly, I don’t get running. But, what I understand even less is dragging young children along?! Yes, the older one’s (10+) seem to enjoy it but there’s at least 5x more that seem wayyyy to young - toddlers, very young kids - who hate it. They’re dragged along by their parents, literally kicking and screaming and crying.

AIBU to think if your kid hates running that much or patently doesn’t want to be there, that you do NOT force it on them?! Just because you like running doesn’t mean you force it on them. Find them an activity they enjoy.

PS. Yes I am annoyed by the sheer ignorance of 100+ people taking up that much space and forcing others to dive out the way - but mostly it’s the shrill screams of toddlers being forced to run that drives me bonkers. Someone will pop up and say ‘they love it,’ but I’m sorry - kids screaming ‘it hurts’ ‘I don’t want to’ whilst their parents drag them along by their wrist just angers me. And it’s not one parent one week - it’s multiple different parents on various weeks.

If your child needs you to run with them at the junior parkrun in order to keep going /know where to go, they are probably too young to be doing it. There are marshals.

In my experience the parents who run with their child at junior parkrun do it because they know their child will likely slow and walk at some point, and the parent does not want them to do that and intends to prevent them doing that. Or, because they expect their child to get upset part way round and want to stop.

In the first situation it should be fine fpr the child to slow/walk. In the second they are too young/not ready to be doing it

Areolaborealis · Today 13:50

Which is a long way if you're 4 years old, haven't exercised beforehand and are wearing cheap trainers that are getting too small for you.

Have you been going round measuring children's feet and demanding to know the size of their trainers?

YANBU. Absolutely children should be encouraged to be more physically active but you can do that by taking them to the park, on walks, climbing trees etc etc. very few children enjoy formal running (not during play)

And what is wrong with that?

"gymnastics, swimming, cycling, skating, horse riding etc".

I'm not sure what makes the OP an expert in identifying sports for other people's children.

I love parkrun but think I agree with you. I understand why parents would want to give iit a go but if your child hates it after 3 runs, I would stop going. Tried it with all my DC and they all hated it!

If the kids enjoy running fair enough but if they are clearly not enjoying it then I agree with you.

It's probably so they can be insufferable show offs on their socials.

One of the worst examples of parenting I’ve seen is at a riding stables. An experienced young teen came off a horse in the early part of an hour private. Crying out of shock but also saying her shoulder hurt. Parent screaming at her to get back on the horse and finish the lesson as it had cost her. Young teen eventually relented but was clearly in pain. Young instructor suggested several times to parent she should have her checked out medically. Instructor told to do her job.

I saw young teen a couple of weeks at the stables later in a sling…

I complained to the stable owner - the instructor should not have let her back on the horse but was clearly terrified of the parent. I got shrugged shoulders at my complaint - that’s just how the parent is apparently. I suggested their insurance company may take a different view…

Based on this, I think we should ban kids from horse riding if we are banning junior parkrun. Deal?

I quoted exactly what op said…

@Areolaborealis

i don’t think you need to be “mentally and physically prepared” - park run isn’t very far, it’s not like these kids are being tasked with running a marathon

It’s 2km. This is not a long way. It’s good exercise.

my children don’t like learning their spelling, times tables or tidying their bedroom. Some things are important. Exercise is one of them.

Bloody hell. A junior park run is 2k and they can walk as well as run. Some posters are making it sound like kids are being forced to run a 10k every week. Unless a child has disabilities or are unwell they should not have any issue with jogging just over a mile on a Sunday morning- it's not far at all.

This!!

The OP is by the sea. Maybe read a little bit.

Walking is free. Playing in the park is free. How many more times does this have to be pointed out?

It absolutely is ok for kids to fit in with their parents. But the time for that 8s not when you are trying to encourage them to make being active part of their life for ever. They need to enjoy that.

Children cry all the time? Really?
Yes, sometimes they kick off about something they have to do and you just have to roll with that. Park run is not one of those things.

For the 27467382636842826th time - go for a walk?

I have two children. My eldest does hours of sport a week, would do something e try day if I let her (she's annoyed I won't let her go to the gym today as she has a bit of a niggle).

My youngest is 7 and given the choice he won't do any sport. He's able to, there's no physical reason why not, he'd just rather sit at home. We have a deal that he has to do one type of sport a week. Sometimes that's junior parkrun, sometimes he'll go climbing with me, sometimes we'll go swimming as a family. He'll mostly enjoy doing these things once he's there but it takes time to get into it.

I'm not asking much, he doesn't have to join a club or a team or spend hours- just something to keep him a bit active. Once he's out doing any of these activities he's usually there for hours (in the playground after park run etc). No activity is not an option though.

And I hated PE which involved being forced to do things I disliked intensely so much I was inactive for literal decades. I’m active now, but I had to find things I liked and get over the barrier that I believed I hated it all. I sometimes moaned a bit about a family walk, but I never felt so viscerally angry and embarrassed about it. Hence I now enjoy it. Making a child run when they hate it enough to cry will not result in them enjoying it in 99% of cases.

@cardibach is your objection about running in general, kids being forced to run or junior parkrun. You seem very invested in this and wondered why?

Did you read what the OP reported? Children being dragged along while crying and saying they are in pain? Now I’m happy to accept that’s not the majority of runners, but it’s those ones we are discussing, not the happy walking chatters.

@cardibach

walking does not get the heart rate up and burn calories in the way running does so for many of us it’s not sufficient exercise.

Nobody is suggesting banning Junior ParkRun. Just saying it’s daft to make kids do it if it hurts them and they hate it. Same as it was daft to make the injured rider continue.

I take what the OP said with a very large pinch of salt. If there were dozens of children crying and being dragged round, that parkrun should be reported to HQ, but I simply don't believe that there were. It certainly doesn't reflect what our local junior parkrun is like. Yes, you get the odd pushy parent. Unfortunately you see them in all activities. That's not parkrun's fault.