Walking Home from a Friend's House
Lots of the Micro Ventures for this month toe the line of being a bit too macro. It cost money to go to the stock show, cross country skiing requires specialized gear and a long drive, Bubble Day took a lot of planning… Micro Ventures are supposed to be things that you can do ANY DAY! Just get out of the house and do some sort of activity or experience for yourself or your child(ren).
This post reflects that mentality perfectly.
On this particular day, as I was prepping to pick up Grey from a neighbor’s house, I found myself with a choice: to drive or to walk. It’s a pitiful distance to even bother starting the car and the weather was fair, so I opted to walk. But I wondered how Grey would do if I expected him to walk the road back with me. Would he demand to be carried the whole way? I didn’t want to have to do that. I was hoping he would work his legs instead of hitching a ride in my arms or the stroller. As I rushed out the door, I impulsively grabbed his Wagon and his stuffed rooster. Maybe I could turn this into some sort of game.
After we bid farewell to our friends, the trial began. Grey definitely did NOT want to walk on his own. He pushed the rooster in the wagon for a hot second and then wanted me to carry the wagon. I did, and he despondently dragged the rooster for a while. Once he was over that, he wanted carried. But now I had saddled myself with the wagon and the pretty big rooster to manage too. My kid is small for his age, but I don’t love carrying him long distances in my arms. I pulled out all my mom tricks to try to convince him to walk:
“Can you use fast feet?” As I shuffled my feet quickly and made up a little tune to match the beat.
Nope.
“Ooooo Grey! Look at the numbers on this mailbox! Now isn’t that interesting?!”
No, it wasn’t.
A good old fashioned, “okay, bye, see you later!” as I walked away.
This led to Grey closing his eyes as he protested and careening around the road closer to where cars pass.
Our road has no sidewalks and it does get a fair amount of traffic. Too much for me to just trust that he’ll follow me and stay out of harm’s way as I march resolutely ahead without him.
So I caved… a little. I plopped him into the wagon with the rooster and pushed them back. Now he was having fun, and I had a broken back. Sigh.
The next time I picked him up, I bought the stroller and got him to push a stuffed animal in the stroller for about 100 feet before he wanted in there himself. Next time, I plan to bring the backpack and just put him in there once he’s done walking… which will be at the end of their driveway. But one day! He’s going to walk that route on his own two feet, gosh darn it!
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