Hello... I don't post as often as I should, but I do really enjoy reading the different perspectives on GD - the variances help me to sort out my own position. That said, I'm running into a situation that I'm having trouble figuring out how to approach from a GD perspective.
My daughter turned 2 in September. She's normally a fairly easy going child - I'm generally home wiht her and can give her a lot of control over the direction of our days. One thing that we need to do is take the dog for a walk. We take him to the dry lake bed that is immediately behind our house.
We could go for as little as 10-15 minutes as he runs off leash and gets a lot of exercise in a small amount of time.
My DD understands that the dog *needs* exercise (for his well being and so that he doesn't drive Mummy nuts!). She has some choice as to when we go (though daylight is currently only between approximately 9:00am and 4:00pm, which adds some constraints) and has plenty of lead up time. When we head outside, she is ready and willing.
However, as soon as we get onto the lakebed, her legs collapse and she doesn't want anything. She can't be enticed into going to see the trees, or the dugout or to look for tracks. She doesn't want to play, or walk, or run. My dilemma is that I can't carry her and she doesn't want to ride in the backpack carrier. I'm not asking her to walk for kilometres (or miles!), just that we can get far enough away from the houses that I'm not constantly after the dog because he's in people's yards.
So... I feel as though going outside is not negotiable. I simply cannot carry her for any distance without her being in the backpack (she also refuses the sling). I would *love* for her to actually enjoy being outside, but would accept less! I don't want to threaten to walk away from her, or to threaten unrelated punishments (ie come with me or you'll have a time out etc. when we get home) - I don't tend to use punishment anyway.
So, any ideas? I realize that this is very long, for which I apologize. When we were outside today I was feeling very frustrated. Her Dad was home today, and carried her around for a long time. That worked today, but isn't an option five days of the week!
Thank you,
Erica
My daughter turned 2 in September. She's normally a fairly easy going child - I'm generally home wiht her and can give her a lot of control over the direction of our days. One thing that we need to do is take the dog for a walk. We take him to the dry lake bed that is immediately behind our house.
We could go for as little as 10-15 minutes as he runs off leash and gets a lot of exercise in a small amount of time.
My DD understands that the dog *needs* exercise (for his well being and so that he doesn't drive Mummy nuts!). She has some choice as to when we go (though daylight is currently only between approximately 9:00am and 4:00pm, which adds some constraints) and has plenty of lead up time. When we head outside, she is ready and willing.
However, as soon as we get onto the lakebed, her legs collapse and she doesn't want anything. She can't be enticed into going to see the trees, or the dugout or to look for tracks. She doesn't want to play, or walk, or run. My dilemma is that I can't carry her and she doesn't want to ride in the backpack carrier. I'm not asking her to walk for kilometres (or miles!), just that we can get far enough away from the houses that I'm not constantly after the dog because he's in people's yards.
So... I feel as though going outside is not negotiable. I simply cannot carry her for any distance without her being in the backpack (she also refuses the sling). I would *love* for her to actually enjoy being outside, but would accept less! I don't want to threaten to walk away from her, or to threaten unrelated punishments (ie come with me or you'll have a time out etc. when we get home) - I don't tend to use punishment anyway.
So, any ideas? I realize that this is very long, for which I apologize. When we were outside today I was feeling very frustrated. Her Dad was home today, and carried her around for a long time. That worked today, but isn't an option five days of the week!
Thank you,
Erica
