How do I teach them boundaries....

I need to teach them to stop "on command" and be able to be a little more reliable when walking with us. They want to walk, but we have to hold tightly to their hands etc. because they will run off in the other direction (Martin's pretty fast!! )....

Can I expect this to get better soon (almost 2)? What do I do to teach them? Ideas and suggestions greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

 

I need to teach them to stop "on command" and be able to be a little more reliable when walking with us. They want to walk, but we have to hold tightly to their hands etc. because they will run off in the other direction (Martin's pretty fast!! )....

Can I expect this to get better soon (almost 2)? What do I do to teach them? Ideas and suggestions greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

 

Kenzie never left my side. Mikaela was a nightmare and didn't listen at all. I think she was closer to 3 when she stopped heading straight for traffic. Zander was over 2 and listened fairly well. Maddox kind of listens a little but for the most part he'll run straight into traffic cause he thinks its funny. Burkely is just clueless. So I wanna say closer to 2.5 on average before they listen better. Depending on the kids temperment of course.

 

Thanks Jess!!! How is NC?!!! GOOD TO SEE YOU HERE!!! (You need to update your siggy to reflect your new location! )

 

It's still a challenge for us. They both want to walk unassisted, but obviously that is not an option at this age. So we just resort to really holding on to their hands.

 

We can go somewhere and all of our kids walk. We have one day dreamer right now that we are working with, but he has improved alot in the last 2 weeks.

What we do when they are first starting to walk with us, (we do this together - me and dh) whenever they try to run off, DH spanks them, tells them how dangerous it is, explains to them how much they mean to us and that they need to stay close.

However, if you are not a spanker, you will have to use your own punishment method... But that has always worked for us, we have never had any of our kids try to run off (other than that first time).

As soon as they learn that its absolutly NOT exceptable (sp?) to run off, they will stay close. IMO. HTH!

 

I held their hands for almost everything until just recently except at the park. I just started letting them walk on the sidewalks etc without holding my hand last summer when we were practicing for Disney World. I wanted them not to have to hold my hand all day in the Florida sun so we worked out staying close. They had to be within my reach at all times. We kind of made it a game and it was fun.

At the younger ages I let them run free at the park but I did set their boundary by yelling "far enough". That is what I taught for their cue to not go any further. I also taught "freeze" as a more 'important' phrase and they learned if I said that they had to immediately stop as there might be danger.

How did I do it? repeat repeat repeat repeat until you think you can't utter another word. You will see your just rewards right when you don't think you can take it a moment longer!