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.

So you hate it but you spend long enough there to examine the behaviour of lots of the families?

why not just walk a couple of KM further down the seafront and leave them to decide what is best for their family?

Oh and for every whingeing child I can guarantee there will be 20 or so that are really enjoying it

also it’s free

RDs should look out for the kids that aren’t enjoying consistently (mine like it generally but do sometimes moan), but does that mean that the other 20 shouldn’t get to enjoy?

yabvu

And then there will be another thread soon enough about overweight children....

To be honest, i think forcing children esp v young ones to do a 1.2mile run when they clearly hate it, is just going to make them to hate all activity.

My DD runs at national level, she started as a 6yo in schools XC, i used to bribe her to go to the after schools running club with chocolate but not for long as v quickly she was winning over all the age groups but she was an exception, by the time she got to comp school, all those kids forced to run by over bearing parents were doing no sport at all, a school of 1200 pupils couldn't even get a single XC team together.

I think forcing kids, instead of encouraging, to do sport is a huge mistake and Junior PR isn't helping matters at all.

One of the worst things i ever heard was a 11 or 12 yo boy being admonished by his Mum because he had a bad XC race, the boy was crying, his Dad, instead of praising his efforts shouted "what was that?" and walked off.

Todays kids are overweight because of diet, which is full of processed foods and sugary drinks, a 20min run once a week isn't going to alter that.

@Knowillbeflamed

All those other forms of exercise cost money, parkrun is free!

Minimum age is 4 anyway. Not seen any complaining kids at ours when I volunteer

I have one who loves parkrun and one who hates it. The DC who hates it is asked if they want to run. I explain they don’t have to but 9 times out of 10 they want to run. Then they moan the whole way round and say they hate it so I probably look like one of ‘those’ parents but it is my DCs choice. The following week we go through the same routine. Mine are a bit older 8-10ish so once they start I make sure the do the whole 2km as it’s not far and good for them to finish what they start but if they choose not to run that’s also fine.

Just sounds like you hate running/can't run yourself so are complaining because others enjoy it.

Well, yes, there are some arseholes out there but I'm sure the majority of kids are enjoying it.

What you're basically saying, is that children should just do things that don't annoy you?

The parents right, if you have a stitch you shouldn’t talk as that will make it worse, where as if you just breathe and carry on exercising it will stop.

I'd have to be dragged round a parkrun kicking and screaming too. But that's probably because I'm lazy and was never encouraged to take part in running like these children you complain about are being.
Honestly, what i dont understand, is how you can be arsed to be annoyed about a group activity that you dont even want to be involved in. Just stop being an utter misery and get on with your day.

You are seeing a snapshot of an interaction. Kid may be really keen beforehand. But one of the tricky things with running is pacing so it isn’t unusual for them to sprint initially and then get tired and disgruntled at some point in the race. And then really happy that they did it at the end.

so - I would see a bit of protest during park run as normal kid behaviour (and they get frustrated kicking a ball around too, believe me) and would concentrate on the response of the adult - and if that worries you alert the park run safeguarding team.

Mine started it as soon as they were 4, within 6 months they were running it without a parent so definitely weren't being dragged round! They have done over 100 and even chose to go on Christmas Day. We never make them go and tell them it's fine to walk if they want or sometimes they volunteer instead. There (of course) are some who are forced and the team do look out for, and approach parents who appear to be putting too much pressure on their kids. For the vast majority it's a positive experience.

Are park runs not actually in parks? The one in my town is.

Not always, and junior park run is sometimes in a different location so its smoother ground etc.

If it’s a weekend morning, why not? They’ll have PE twice a week at school. Let them be kids. Their parents will have probably enrolled them in multiple ex-curricular activities like swimming, dance, football etc. after school anyway. I think with a lot of these parents it’s more that they’re seen to be dragging their kids out to participate by their parent friends so they’re not judged at the school gates come Monday morning

Whilst I agree that children shouldn't be forced to do any activity they really don't want to, my experience of children at my school is that many do enjoy it.

Fair enough for parents to give it a go with their children - but if a child really doesn't enjoy it, then find a different civilly for them. There's no reason a child needs to do a park run. They can usually get adequate exercise from running around a park/playground playing games or with a ball or two.

Why not find an activity she enjoys and wants to do, rather than force this one in her?

@Knowillbeflamed my kids aren't Parkrun fans at the start but are really proud of themselves once they've done it.

Also my DCs struggle with social relationships so don't have people to kick a ball around a park with, even if they felt so inclined.

Nice try, mine wouldn’t. He hates football but would do park run (I’d still have to persuade him though). A lot of kids need persuasion to do physical exercise but isn’t it better than them not doing it?

It’s not the end of the world and it is good people get out and do something active with their kids. I don’t want to ban it or anything but it is a pain in the arse and it wouldn’t kill people who take part to acknowledge that it’s a bit of a pain if you live next to one.

Maybe it isn’t for that long but at least where I am our local one is pretty much every Saturday and every Sunday and it’s usually more than half an hour and it’s the ancillary irritations of lots of people descending on the area in their cars at more or less the same time and then leaving it a while later at more or less the same time on a weekend morning when you might like to be headed off to go out somewhere without hitting the mini traffic congestion it creates, to go for a walk and use your local park for the kids to play in etc.

I think YAB a little U to say kids shouldn’t be dragged along as kids don’t always love everything they do and sure it won’t harm them. YANBU to find the whole of parkrun a bit irritating because it is but it would be unreasonable to suggest it’s not done as overall I’m sure it does a lot more good than harm

If children don’t like their ‘downtime’ activity, then the parents need to find something else they want to do.
there are plenty more things for them to do, cycling, swimming, walking, rugby, football, hockey, netball to name but a few.
im a runner (you’d have never had guessed with my name I’m sure 🤣) and I’ve seen parents telling their child to ‘just run’ at Parkrun (not junior) when they’re unhappy and clearly aren’t enjoying it. I get them trying it to see, maybe even going twice, as I’ve also seen an occasion where a child is moaning but loved it when they had finished and asked if they can do it again. But it doesn’t build resilience in my opinion, just makes your child hate running. Especially this time of year when it’s
cold, damp and sometimes muddy.

I hated running at school, if my parents had made me do it I’d have still hated it. As it is, they didn’t and I bloody love running now. (Although I do sometimes moan about not wanting to do it when I’m running 🤣)

Parkrun is great for adults and juniors so I’d say unreasonable for the whole pathway taken up thing as it’s once a week, but reasonable for wondering why parents drag their children around if they don’t to, because you can run and / or walk at Parkrun so you can still have the fresh air and exercise element and not run it / the whole way.

Just to say I don’t agree with people literally dragging a crying child around. But I think while these people do exist, your post maybe be exaggerating just a little bit, because you feel you must visit the park at exactly 9am on a Sunday for some reason.

Agreed.

We have a junior parkrun and I volunteered there a few times when it first started. Lovely event. For many of the younger children a huge incentive to keep coming is that you get a coloured wristband for completing a certain number of parkruns and they were very proud of their collection. Most parents I saw there were encouraging and making the whole thing a bit of fun, then going to the cafe afterwards. Yes, it's only 20 minutes of exercise a week, but (a) that's better than nothing and (b) obviously it's all about building a positive attitude to exercise and getting out in the fresh air.

Some of the kids who were fast juniors when I volunteered are now young adults finishing first or second on the Saturday 5k event, which has been great to see, but I'm even more pleased to see the youngsters who are not natural runners keeping the habit going. That would have been me 50 years ago and there was no parkrun, nor any encouraging, supportive organisation trying to get everybody into sport and exercise. I was put off by school PE lessons, which were awful unless you were really sporty, my parents didn't play sport or take us for long walks, and the consequence was that for decades I fell into a sedentary lifestyle and became really unfit. It's taken parkrun to make me realise that actually anybody can exercise and doing something, even if you're not all that fast or strong, is hugely better than doing nothing.

One of the many wonderful things about parkrun is the opportunities it gives to people of all ages to volunteer. It's ideal for teenagers doing Duke of Edinburgh.

This makes me sad, so many kids are put off exercise because they’re forced to do something they don’t enjoy because ‘it’s good for them’ ‘it builds resilience’, when actually they just haven’t found the right thing for them.

My family are very competitive and at school and home because I’m quite fit I was made to do competitive sport because I was good at it. I absolutely hated it and the minute I could give up I did. It took years, decades probably, to get back to exercise and realising that I could run to enjoy it without having to try and be faster than other people or myself, or dance or do yoga or shadow boxing. I love exercise again now, and I do think park run is a brilliant thing, but I absolutely won’t participate because I don’t want to be timed and ranked.

I know I’m not on my own with it, my sister is a fitness instructor and worked in schools for a while and she says she sees it every single day.

I love parkrun and junior parkrun but I totally hear you about people who force their kids into it when they clearly don’t want to be there. It’s supposed to be fun and everyone can take part at their own pace (particularly at juniors) so comments like “don’t talk you should be running” and parents who run holding hands with their child and practically drag them round at their speed not the child’s do need to be called out and they’re only going to put their kids off it even more.