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.

@incognitomouse well clearly we get different sorts of tourists. Because screaming and crying children at 9-10am on a Saturday is something ours (and most of the people living here) dislike.

And that’s okay. People are allowed to have different standards, our tourists standards are clearly just a bit higher. 😁

Yes, so nice to know that that a lovely, free, inclusive community event has been shut down.

And if the business have caused it to shut down, that's just daft of them. People travel from all over to go to all the different park runs, and runs almost always have a group cafe visit afterwards.

Given the OP’s tendency for over exaggeration (screaming and crying children and toddlers for a whole hour 9-10, really?) I tried searching for information on permanently closed down junior parkruns at a seaside location in England and haven’t found any.

I suspect it's simply moved elsewhere. It's unlikely that there isn't a suitable park in the vicinity. Win-win.

You haven't heard of parkrun tourism then?

Plenty of places make a mint out of parkrunners. There are Facebook groups full of people discussing which parkrun they will do next (and which cafes are the best for breakfast).

I've not heard of any either and I generally have my ear to the ground. I know about one in Dorset which closed but it wasn't due to complaints and it was a 5k event.