How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

DS just dashes off in a split second. Yesterday I nearly had a heart attack when 14m DS ran halfway across the street. I looked away for like 1 second. He refuses to sit in his stroller and shopping cart. If you let him down, he disappears.

How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

I cannot fathom how much more difficult things will get if/when we add another baby to the picture.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

DD has no other option than to be in her stroller or shopping cart.

I bring things to distract her... i.e. snacks usually do the trick.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Force him in the stroller and bribe him with a favorite snack. Sometimes you just can't make him happy.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Miki is 3 but she has a choice, she can sit in the front of the shopping cart, she can sit in the back of the shopping cart or she can stay home....it is not an optional thing

she is good with this but your ds needs to know that he NEEDS to sit in the cart, that is it....

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

When DD was in that phase I stopped taking her. I couldn't take it. I did errands at night or weekends when DH could watch her.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

I only take my ds to store that have shopping carts

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Are you opposed to a kiddie leash? I live in an urban area, and I plan to own these the minute DS gets mobile. We walk everywhere.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

I carry cookies at all times. Seriously. I am not necessarily encouraging this, because now, the second we walk into a store, DS says, "cookie? cookie?"

I only take him to Target or grocery shopping type shopping - like someone else said, only stores that have shopping carts. He loses it very quickly in a clothing store and he is in the stroller. He likes to sit in the stroller in the mall itself, lots to look at, but is not happy if I want to go into a store and shop.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

My kids also have never been given an option. Another thing we do is keep them shoeless. They know I don't let them walk outside with no shoes, so if they have no shoes they know they will be in the stroller or the cart. This originally happened because they started kicking each other in their stroller-they face each other- and I had to take off their shoes for that reason.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

no options. this is what we are doing. this is what you have to do. when there is danger involved, what he wants is the LASt thing to be considered. too bad, so sad. you sit. the end.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

I will tell you it is very hard and even harder that i have a mobile 3 AND 1 yr old

With my 3 yr old I am very stern that he MUST stay at least in my vision

we live in the city so I also ingrained into his brain that STREET means HOLD HAND so I know he wont run into the street.....my 1 yr old is another story

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

There are no choices - He sits in the stroller, or in the shopping cart - where I put him -

I talk to him, I play w/ him, I engage him in our shopping spree ........I ask him if he wants waffles or pancakes - whatever I can do to keep him involved and distracted. I let him hold the cookie box - anything.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Short answer: quickly!

Longer answer... I'm willing to endure public tantrums and have physically restrained DD in order to strap her into her stroller. I tell her simply that she has to stay with me or she stays strapped in her stroller... not easy but sometimes you have no choices.

Snacks always make things easier and trying to engage her while she's in the shopping cart helps too. But being fast is the best option (or leaving your kid home, if that's a choice!).

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

DS is 15 months. I feed him snacks the entire way through the grocery store. Sometimes we get a balloon too.

He likes to hold things that I am buying... I make a big deal about certain things - flowers, fruit, etc. So he gets excited when he spots those things in the store.

Sometimes by the end of the trip he melts down though - so I definitely feel your pain.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

i like a PP answer: quickly

For me its all a battle plan with lots of leeway. Go to certain places at dead times or with very little in my hands. I've nearly come to the point of just an ID and credit card. I use a backpack so both hands are free and I build in the reality that I won't get anything done as quickly as I would have without her.

I never let her loose. She's allowed to sit at my feet, play near me etc... but two steps away and I pounce on her. She's thrown a tantrum here and there but I speak calmly and say "If you want to be upset because mommy wants to see you, thats ok with me"

I usually have her favorite three snacks with the ultimate bride of marshmallows in my backpack. I gauge my weapon choice carefully. I time my errand around diaper changes, feeding times and naps. Trying to catch her an hour before a nap, just after a change and kinda snacky works best for me.

Generally I do errands without her or with my hubby. But if I have to do something with her its all about the planning! haha

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

When I worked as a Nanny, I had the same issues. What I did was a reward system. If they behaved and sat in the stroller or cart, I gave them a treat at the end. No toys. A lollipop or a cookie or ice cream. It almost always worked. The kids ranged in age from 14 months -3 years at the time....

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?

DS had to stay in the stroller in any sort of crowded store or a busy street, and in parking lots, again the stroller, or I carried him. If he made a stink about getting in the stroller, I told him we would go home. He likes going out, so I only had to do this once.

I did make the mistake of letting him hold my hand one day in a parking lot during the period when he still took off frequently, and he bolted. I screamed at him after that, and he has never run off since then. It might have more to do with his development than the screaming though, he didn't get to walk with me like that for a long time after that. Now he is 2.5 and wants to be carried in parking lots, but I honestly don't mind.

Re: How do you run errands with a mobile toddler?