Anonymous wrote:Around 55 pounds/48 inches, which was around 5 years old.

+1.

I carried my kid for the last time around this age/size. I strained my back horribly, and I realized I just couldn’t do it anymore. Made me so sad.

Say something like:
"I love holding you so much. You're getting so big and strong now, and sometimes my body hurts when I carry you. But I always want to snuggle with you in other ways."

My kid is 4 and I pick him up whenever he wants. I do it, because I know by days are numbered, and I'm going to miss it one day

Anonymous wrote:Aw. I have a 16 year old and this thread makes me wistful. When she was 4, my husband said to me, someday you will pick her up for the last time. And you won’t even know it.

I guess I did.

I recently read someone saying that and it made me stop and think about my 3 grown children. When was the last time I picked each of them up? It happened, and I didn't even realize at the time that I would never carry them again.

My youngest is 7 and I carried him briefly today! (It hurt some…). My oldest was too tall and heavy by 7. Probably I had to stop at 6 with them aside from an occasional piggy bank (which I think is different)

Oldest is 7, my kids are not small, and I haven’t stopped.

I do it less and less but my 5 year old will get a little tired and/or wild out and about and then he gets scooped up and carried away.

My kids are 7 and 5 and both about 40 lbs. If they want to snuggle, I'll sit down and snuggle with them or give them a hug.

If we're out for a walk and they want me to carry them, I might be able to carry them for half a block, and I'll offer to do that and point out exactly how far I'm going to carry them, so the expectation is set. That short distance usually satisfies their need to be carried. I can still comfortably give them piggie back rides.

More often, though, I'll remind them that they're big kids now and I can't carry them anymore. Instead, I'll make a game out of walking together, like racing to the next tree or trying not to step on cracks (because they're lasers!) or playing red light-green light.

I stopped carrying my daughter when she was 4. DH still occasionally carries her and she is 8. He probably regularly stopped carrying her at 7.

I don't carry my 8 to around but I will still occasionally pick her up and hold her for a hug or to comfort her. She's pretty small, around 42 lbs.

I think I stopped carrying her around at 4 though. We used a stroller occasionally until she was 5 for situations where she couldn't walk the whole time, but carrying a kid bigger than a toddler for more than a couple minutes is just too much for me. DH would sometimes put her on his shoulders and could do that for longer, but it was still hard.

Mine is 10 and I still piggyback him to and from his bedroom morning and night

I don’t know when I regularly stopped carrying them. But a few weeks ago we were talking about strength and lifting and I carried my 6’1 16 year old from our kitchen to our living room while he hooted with laughter.

I would say somewhere around 5-6 was when I stopped carrying my older kids (my younger isn’t that old yet, but we really only carry them if tired or needing to move faster than he wants) on a regular basis. That doesn’t mean that on occasion I haven’t carried them since, but it is really only in needed situations (I.e when she fell asleep on the way home from Disney and it was carrying her into bed).

You mentioned that they like to snuggle. My kids still snuggle up on the couch and stuff, so it doesn’t mean they can’t snuggle just because you aren’t carrying them as often.

People who think there is no reason to carry a kid if they could walk, need to listen to Luther Van Dross’s Dance with my father. It’s the most secure feeling in the world. My grandkids love to fall asleep on me.

My 7 year old weighs 60 lbs. I’ll carry him to his bedroom or pick him up for a hug. My 9 year old weighs 50lbs and I pick her up and carry her short distances pretty regularly still. I used to carry them everywhere around ten lbs ago. I had to carry the big one from a soccer field to a parking lot recently and it was HARD.

I love carrying my 4 year old still. She’s only 35 pounds so it’s easy and she’s so cuddly. My 7 year old I only carry now if we’re being silly around the house; she’s way too heavy now to do it regularly.