Last Sunday night before dinner, I looked at Skipper and Little Ironman and told them that I was going to write out my running plans for the week for them – just so that they would know when I’d be gone.
Let’s backtrack a little. In the fall, LI would ride his bike with me on many of my runs. The exception was my Wednesday night run with Shawn; LI knew that it was my running tim
e and he was going to be home with Daddy and his big brother.
e and he was going to be home with Daddy and his big brother.Sometime in November, LI started to get very upset whenever I went to pull on my running gear. He wanted to come with me – but couldn’t. He would cry, “I wasn’t expecting this!” or “Why didn’t you tell me earlier you were going for a run?” My five year old was beginning to sound like my father. Of course, his tears only upset me before I headed out the door and that always seemed to impact my run.
During the holidays, I planned to help Skipper with his days of the week. He does know them but still gets mixed up when asked, “What comes after____?” Since he learns best when it’s important or meaningful (as most kids do), we wrote the days of the week together and filled in Mom’s Running Schedule.
“There,” I said. “Now you know when I’m going to go out so you won’t have to worry any more.”
To which he replied, “Wait! Now I need to do my running schedule so that you know when I’m going to run.”
And we left it on the kitchen table for the entire week. And guess what? When it was time for me to run, there were no tears – at all.
Tonight, LI told me that we have to do another schedule tomorrow.
“Great idea! We’ll do that after I run.”
Then Skipper added, “Uh, Mom, do you think you can send me a soft copy?”
Then Skipper added, “Uh, Mom, do you think you can send me a soft copy?”
I can do that – especially when everyone is back on board.
what a great idea!!! and my son is only 2 (this wed) so I have had no issues