Introducing 'Adventure Days'
Something I have wanted to be able to do with my family for a long time is go for walks and hikes. I don’t mean serious hikes, like where you need proper hiking gear and do it properly enough to be hashtag official (#hikewithkids). I just desperately want to be able to generally go into a national park and enjoy walking some of the trails, with my family. Not such a big ask, right?
Our first hiking attempt as a family was a bit of a #fail (yep, that’s official). We made it a few hundred metres into a rainforest walk before one kid was whinging of sore legs and the other was running off the path into the forest. We couldn’t even make it one kilometre along a lovely, easy, beautiful walk to the picnic area (even with food as an incentive!). Our toddler ended up having a massive tantrum and both kids were carried for a little while – all the way back to the car. And we had driven a couple hours to get there, so they actually had plenty of energy to use up. They just used it up whinging rather than walking. So my husband and I made the executive decision to drive to the nearest town, buy some ice creams for the kids and our favourite takeaway for lunch, and have a picnic by the creek. The kids played for an hour just chucking rocks into the water while we watched and enjoyed our picnic. So…we know how to picnic, but not how to hike.
Since that day, I’ve been secretly wondering how other families do it. Every weekend I see families whose kids walk on the beach with them. I’m not kidding – these kids actually walk or run the whole way without complaining. Toddlers right up to teens. Whereas my kids need 110% coaxing from me to get them walking anywhere – I have to draw trails, race them, skip, trick them, pretend I’m a cat – anything to get them to walk in one direction. The few parents I’ve asked have a few typical responses.
First general scenario:
Me: “How the heck do you get your child/kids to walk?”
Other mum: blank stares. “What do you mean? They just do it.” *secretly judging me for doing something wrong*
Second general scenario:
Me: “How the heck do you get your child/kids to walk?”
Other mum: “Oh it’s so easy, we just started when they were a baby so it’s all they know.” *secretly judging me for not doing this earlier*
The Never Ever Happens Scenario:
Me: “How…etc…etc”
Other mum: “OMG it was SO MUCH WORK and we did this and it was SO terrible and – tantrums – whinging – sibling fights – parents fighting – question the meaning of life - and now it is great, so worth it, you should do it!”
I do make myself laugh.
The internet hiking mamas are full of tips, but they all seem to assume that the kids will actually walk at least a bit (once they’re not in baby carriers anymore). And as if they will enjoy it. My kids must be weird. But the problem is, these articles are all written by parents who love to hike. Where do you start if your kids hate walking? Or if you hate doing it with the kids because of how horrible it is?
Well I will be that person for you. I’m going to learn how to get my kids to enjoy hiking, and you learn with us.
So finally, a couple years after our first failed attempted, I decided to try again.
Firstly, here are a few tips I did find helpful in the research of what other families do to make it work:
Special food incentives – great energy treats they only get if they aren’t whinging and only on the trail.
Be willing to stop and go at their pace (e.g. look at ants for ten minutes if you have to), let them discover the joy of nature in their own way.
Some game and activity ideas – e.g. I Spy, nature bingo, sketching notebook and a pencil, camera to take photos.
Go somewhere with variety or that’s a bit difficult, so they don’t get bored.
Be willing to carry smaller children/toddlers a little bit.
Go with friends so the kids can play along the way and follow each other.
Our reattempted First national park Walk (with a Bike)
And since I have not been doing this since they were little, I will start small now. So I researched where a good track was close by to our home, something that would take a couple hours max. I packed a light bag, with some special snacks. I found an easy track where cyclists are allowed, so my son could ride his bike and I could walk at a normal pace. To begin with, I knew he would love to ride and there was literally no chance he would walk very far. This was a compromise.
Another couple tips I would add now, are:
Separate the kids so they can’t fight or whinge if they have those tendencies – for my first fresh attempt, I just took my three-year-old while my husband was working and my daughter was at school. I had the energy to carry his bike if he got tired, and could go at his pace, rather than trying to manage two kids, a bike and a bag.
Create a culture around it, and talk to your kids beforehand about what it will be like. I talked to my son beforehand, and we decided to call it our special Adventure Day. We would be Explorers and it was something new and different, but exciting. We kept up this language throughout the trip.
To begin with, I told him (and myself) we only had to go half an hour into the trail, then we could turn back. An hour of exercise would be a win for us, and a great point to start building upon. Half an hour in we sat down and had a snack. I told him we could go back, or we could see what was ahead, and after the little break he agreed to keep going. I knew I would regret it, because we still had to go all the way back. But the one thing I didn’t realise is that the way back is way easier. Yes you get tired, but you also get into a rhythm. You recognise things along the way and so you know what’s coming next. It’s the unknown which makes the trail seem really long. It must feel like that for the kids too.
Unbelievably, my son didn’t whinge once. He did ask if we could go home, and told me he had enough, but not in a whingy way. I gave him plenty of rests, we stopped to look at things and take pictures and collect leaves. We stopped every time he saw a big stick he just had to have a play with. And the food incentives worked amazingly well. I didn’t have to carry my son even once, but I did have to carry/push his bike a few times. I was able to give him so much attention and meet his needs, which I am sure contributed to his contentment most of the way.
I decided we would go as far as we could, because there was not much chance I’d get my son back onto the trail for a long time, now that he knew what it was. He is a bit little to appreciate how wonderful trees are. And I’m so glad we made it all the way. In the end we did a 4.6km loop trail, all of it, and I just felt so super proud of both my son and me. It took us three hours. I know it would be easy for many families, but it was a big step for our little family. I really want to be able to explore and make the most of the national parks around us. And this was a massive adventure for us.
Learnings for next time:
I want to try a track where we either end up somewhere fun for him to play (e.g. creek or waterfall), or where he will have fun walking without his bike (cannot imagine what that might look like yet). There should be something to look forward to and reward him with, at that age the journey itself isn’t quite enough.
(Side note: I have just realised I may myself become a scenario 2 mum one day when people ask me how I get my kids to go mountain biking! Haha!)
Stay tuned to hear how our next Adventure Day goes!
Your Turn
I want to hear from you! If you’re a family who overcame challenging beginnings to get your family into fun adventures, please show some love and share some tips with the rest of us novices!
And if you’re like me, maybe it’s time to try again, with a fresh strategy. Let me know how you go.