Ideas for getting 2 year old home from nursery

[newname98765]

My 2YO is about to start mornings at nursery (she will be there until midday). Nursery is a 15 min walk away at my pace with a pram. She usually has a nap around midday and I am worried she will fall asleep in the pram on the way home (and as I’m sure
you know, she’ll have a 10 min pram nap and be done for the day!) I could get her to walk but I expect she will be tired and it could take an extra 20 mins to get back which will delay her getting to bed.
I’m wondering whether there’s some way I could get her back which will keep her awake but be quicker than walking. I don’t know whether she’s too big for a push along scooter or something like that? Any ideas welcomed! Thanks!

Push along trike? I hear the Badger brand is good. Or as you say a push along scooter. Do you have a bike? My mum used to cycle to my kindergarten to pick me up, then push the bike home with me in the baby seat because she didn't feel safe/stable riding with me on the back. It worked very well.

You can get those scooters with a seat, or even a regular kids scooter with a pull strap?

Id reccomend one of the push along trikes my wee ones 2 and a half and that's what we use. Means she can nosy around and talk to people loads which is a great way to distract her from a nap haha. Ours is by a brand called smart trike we got it from Argos and it can change and adapt with age to give them more control and pedals eventually so will do for a good wee while.

Can you do the walk in the pram and wheel the pram in the house so they can carry on sleeping.

Or use something to distract them for the journey to keep them awake? Ice lolly? Crackers? Puzzle they can play with.

Micro Scooter, you can get ones with a removable seat and strap to pull it along, but they aren’t in a position where they are likely to fall asleep.

Scoot or balance bike. Mine have always scooted or balance biked to and from a full day 8-6 at nursery. Or if a snack in the buggy on the way, something fiddly like extracting raisins from a little box.

If you are after a push along trike, try looking at the second hand market around you. I bought one in excellent condition for not very much to use with my granddaughter. They don't tend to be used for very long as children grow out of them so they are often lightly used.

I'd have her stand on a scooter and pull her home.

Give her some raisins or other little snack to distract her for 10mins?

Will she stand on a buggy board? Even if she’s quite tired, it should keep her going for the 15 minutes, especially if you make it fun, with silly rhymes or songs.

Can’t you just try the pram and see if she stays asleep? My LO would just stay in the pram for the nap. If she hasn’t been nursery before she will probably be so tired she will just stay asleep

Does it matter? At 2 many kids are skipping bps

I would just let mine sleep in the buggy and leave them in the front garden or inside the hallway

Some really helpful ideas here thank you!

And just to answer the questions, she’s a really light sleeper and our house is awkward to get into (inc steps) so she always wakes getting into the house, and we live in a city so no safe front garden unfortunately. And I don’t want her to drop the nap just yet - she’s really grizzly in the afternoon if she doesn’t have a long enough sleep at lunch. Not fun for her or me!

How about a buggy board?

I wouldn’t worry about it til you see it’s a problem. I’d put her in the pushchair parent facing, give her a snack and chat to her. You could try it tomorrow at 12 noon and see what happens. She may very well be fine and you don’t need to worry about scooters and buggy boards and whatever.

Mine was like this. Unfortunately he’d fall asleep on the buggy board or the scooter too, and fall off, and then be awake for the rest of the day 🥴

Doing half days made him drop his nap. He was grizzly for six weeks but then fine. We did try to change it to full days in the hope of getting the nap back but it didn’t work 🫣

So, what happens about lunch? I'm guessing the nap can't exceed an hour if it's a pre lunch nap. Also, at nursery will she feel like she's missing out if others are just starting lunch as she leaves?

A 2 year old has sufficient balance to stand on a microscooter, which you can then pull along on a strap - you can't go to sleep while standing on a scooter!

From experience though, she will fall asleep half way through lunch anyway. If she needs sleep she needs it! An alternative might be to get one of those pramhandle vibrating things that give a sleeping child the incorrect impression that the buggy is still moving so that she sleeps for a good hour, then she can wake up refreshed for a later lunch.

My daughter had a push along scooter, we have always had a globber and they have been good scooters but micro scooter do the same thing ( for more money). It has a seat and a handle that you add on, so its essentially a trike but then as she gets older you take these off and she has a 3 wheel scooter, I suspect in the next year she would be scooting home by herself. I wouldn't go trike just from experience they are bulky and mine never used them enough to justify how much I forked out but others may say different.

my toddler falls asleep in a trike if he’s tired. Honestly I think you’d be better off with a decent toddler carrier and letting her walk as far as she wants and then go into that so if she falls asleep you could at least keep her in it and get her in the house without waking her up.