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It's the small things.....


purpleduck

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So its only about a 10min walk to school to pick up DD, I usually try and walk it unless running very late. DD drags her feet not only up the hill on the way back home, but pretty much the rest of the level walking as well (and often winges a lot as well)


Do I:

a) start driving to avoid the 15-20min moan fest on the way home - saves time and wingeing but not as good for the environment? Only other upside is getting more time up my sleeve after pick up (not that essential)

b) continue to walk when weather is pleasant, put up with the wingeing and start ignoring DD and listen to a podcast etc?


I would rather engage her in conversation, but the dragging of feet is painful enough and she often prefers to winge...


Thoughts?


Thanks :)


ETA child is in mid-primary so not little anymore.

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I would 100% keep up the walking, how long till she can walk by herself or ride her bike? Does she have a scooter she could ride to make it a bit shorter? Maybe try a game for the walk home to distract her, like 20 questions of this or that, or an A-Z game?

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Depending on age a scooter you can help push her up the hill? Bike?

 

I was going to suggest this. A 10 minute walk is a perfect riding distance. Or a scooter, but a bike would be super quick.

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I do (a) to avoid the slow, whining ramble home. I feel bad about lack of exercise and waste of resources. But extra time and peace offsets it! We do walk on nice days on the way to school when have more energy.

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I’d persevere with the walking or a scooter like others have suggested.


I think once kids realise that the whinging isn’t going to work, they eventually get over it and things are more pleasant as they realise they are just making it worse for themselves.


Continue trying to engage in conversation and hopefully things will improve. The weather cooling down will hopefully help too.

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I walked DD to and from school no matter what the weather.


Keep walking, but tell your DD that you will not be listening to her whinging a moment longer. If she wants to have a real conversation (whether happy, sad or indifferent) with you on the way to and from school, you will be delighted to join in but otherwise you won't be listening. Her choice.

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Once DS is big enough I am going to put him on the back of the tandem to get him home. We normally scoot to school ( and I scoot home with his scooter slung on my back), and we walk home, playing Pokemon Go. If it's raining or extremely hot I bring the car.

An alternative is to have walking days and car days. Woukd that work?

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VeritasVinumArte

We have a 7mins walk home from the station (DD catches train 2 stops - school is near train station), I found for hot days crushing up a Zooper Dooper and putting it in a Thermos helped with the complaining on hot days. I just kept walking through the complainants. Now she actually likes the chat on the walk home. Admittedly she is grade 6 now.

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Jersey Caramel

A friend of mine brings a snack (grapes, cut up fruit etc) and shoves it at her kid when she is barely out of the school gate. Apparently it gets them through the walk home without whinging.

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It honestly depends. I stopped but I realised it was a long walk for her and she was a bit littler.


In your case I think I might try the podcasts, and see if ignoring her whinging makes her stop.

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I heard somewhere that walking in any kinds of weather teaches resilience. So we did that while restrictions were on.

My youngest is in Prep this year. I plan to park the car a little further away every time l pick up. It's a 15 minutes walk in total. If l was on my own with the Grade 3 child, l would not hesitate to walk all the way home.

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A friend of mine brings a snack (grapes, cut up fruit etc) and shoves it at her kid when she is barely out of the school gate. Apparently it gets them through the walk home without whinging.

 

This pretty much sums up what my parents did with me and now do when they do the school run for grandchildren.

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Spidey_Senses

I was going to suggest the snack too. Kids that age are inherently lazy I think :P

Mine will moan and complain about a similar walk on Monday after school, yet on Tuesday after school they will play 2 basketball games back to back without fuss. Its because the walk is 'boring'

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Same re snacks. Mine sometimes needed a substantial snack that would be most people’s lunch. I would also make a fruit frappe by blending up a mix of frozen fruit and take it in a Thermos. A stop at a park/playground was sometimes a bribe that worked.

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Lol mine's only started prep and she's already whinging. It is like a 20-30 minute walk though. We'll push through and eventually she might ride her bike or scooter, we'll see how it works out with the other kids

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We walk or ride unless it’s boiling or pouring rain. I’d maybe have a snack ready for the way home but otherwise ignore the whinging. Or whinge back, that’s guaranteed to get a laugh which often changes the mood. My favourite whinge is “my kids are annnoooyyyying and I’m huuuunnnngry”.

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We do a bit of a compromise - I park the car at the bottom of the hill (it’s rather a big hill), and we walk / scoot from there. Works great, and DD now has a little scooter gang 😁

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Bit of an update, last couple of days haven't been so bad.


We varied from playing - I went to the shops and bought....a-word, b-word, c-word etc and this got us most of the way home (think up to L ;) ), and another day there wasn't so muuch wingeing. Weather is looking rainy today so we'll see how we go, but I think I'll just keep trying. We have done the scooter thing before but haven't done for ages. DD is still a good couple of years off walking by herself - couple of nasty intersections on the way so definitely not any time soon.


As a separate question - is it whinging, whingeing or wingeing? Every time I write it, it looks wrong.

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