Help - 4 Year Old Keeps Running Into Streets/Parking Lots
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Anonymous
This. And every time they wriggle away, you go home. Or inside. Or away from the street. It is non-negotiable. |
Anonymous
| I would not hesitate to put him on a leash. DS, 3.5, always holds my hand and has since he could walk or he went into the stroller. I have two rules that my kids have heard since birth: never run away from me and never pull your hand from mine no matter what. I also tell them parking lots and commercial garages are like streets. Also why - cars cannot see him. |
Anonymous
Yup, agree |
Anonymous
| Stroller or leash. I kept my stroller past when it was “needed” because my youngest was a runner, and thought it was a game when you chased him. |
Anonymous
| One more vote for a leash. Be ready for some people to shame you but honestly, OP, when it comes to the safety of your child who cares what others think/say? If your child was to be hurt by a passing car wouldn't you wish you'd used a leash and prevented it? |
Anonymous
| I had a kid like this and thankfully it does get better with age. But parking lots always scared the crap out of me. I thought it was so ridiculous I had to take my kids into the store with me to just get milk when navigating the parking lot was so much more dangerous than just leaving them in the car for 5 minutes to grab milk. I never ever did that, only fantasized, but it always seemed to me that the actual safety of kids was never what mattered. We had so many close calls and a lot of it was because with 3 kids and only having 2 hands I was outnumbered. |
Anonymous
| Leashing your child is teaching him nothing. Once you take the leash off you're still left with a kid that was never taught to properly cross the street. I once taught a middle school aged kid that would bolt into the street to look at storm drains. I had to teach him to walk with me and stop when I said so. We started in the basement, then moved to the backyard, then to a non busy street, then to a parking lot. This took about 3-4 months to teach because the mother never taught him to do this when he was young and always had him on a leash or in a stroller. Making your life easier now isn't going to help you in the long run. Take the time to teach your kid life skills when they're still young rather than taking the easy way out. |
Anonymous
| Stroller or stay home. |
Anonymous
|
Omg at some of these suggestions here. Spanking?! Try social stories, OP. They work wonders in teaching the child to do things out of motivation, not fear.
(fwiw, decreased safety awareness and elopement is a sign of ASD) |
Anonymous
| I made up a story about monsters under cars that only grab kids who don't have their adults. Detailed visuals, really grab their attention, stop just before they get too scared. Yelling wasn't working. We still get elopement in other circumstances, but much less around cars. |
Anonymous
| Who relies on their 4 year old to take directions? That's crazy parenting |