My Little Runner

Emery is all about jogging right now. It’s become her thing when we go outside and I’m pretty sure she got the idea after seeing me run laps around our block in the afternoons. So now when she sees me getting dressed into my workout clothes she runs to her room and gets her “running shoes”; demanding to have them put on. I usually oblige with the promise of us going for a run after I get back, and she’ll be waiting at the window for me. Shoes on, ready to go.

The first time I went out with her she ran just under half a mile at her own little pace. She would stop every now and then when she’d get distracted, but for the most part she would jog. For me, this seemed pretty awesome. Here was my two year old, running “long distance”, and loving it! But then I started to get worried. And if I’m being honest a bit scared too. All of a sudden I had all of these “first time mom” doubts piling up in my head.

Should a two year old be running such a long distance?

Is she pushing herself too much?

Will people think I’m making her run?

Do I need to invest in some good running shoes for her?

Will this mess with her feet/shins like it does to me?

How far is too far?

Should I make her stop?

I had no answers. I wasn’t exactly sure how much she should be jogging, if she should even be jogging, or if I need to make her stop altogether? How do you decided when the right time for kids to start running “long distance” is? I understand that they have a lot of energy and they love to run and play, but Emery was wanting to race for the most part. She gets that competitiveness from me. And I had to MAKE her stop at half a mile otherwise she would have continued.

When we would go on these jogs I always made sure to take water with me, and to make her stop and walk  a little bit before, during, and after her jogs. Then, a while back I read about the mom who ran her little girl to death, and I’m not going to lie I was afraid people would think that that’s what I was doing to Emery. I already get a lot of grief over the food choices we allow her to make (my kid’s pretty much vegan by her own choice, no joke). Some people have even had the nerve to say that I make my kid diet. I don’t. So the last thing I wanted was someone getting on my case for letting Emery jog or calling CPS because they think I’m making her run as punishment. So, I put a stop to the running.

After a week, Em realized we weren’t jogging anymore. For her being so young, she’s pretty vocal about how she feels, so once she realized we weren’t running anymore she’d start to cry every time I'd leave to go for my run. Then, as soon as I'd get back she'd say “I wanna go running momma. Please? Please momma?” When I would say, “No, baby not today.” She’d start with the fits. So, I finally decided that if I got an okay from her doctor I would allow her to get back out there.

Two weeks ago when Emery got sick I went ahead and took the opportunity to address my concerns and questions at her doctor's visit. And to my surprise she thought it was amazing! In fact, she told me to just take the same precautions I would when running (water, not to push too hard, sunscreen, cool downs, etc.) and to try to not let her run over a mile for now. She let me know that it’s okay to stick to my gut and if I felt Emery was pushing herself too far then I should make her stop and slow down. Other than that she told me that Emery was good to go and she was pleased with her for taking an interest in running. Apparently she doesn’t see this very often, and less so in children as young as Emery. She said she didn’t understand why with such high obesity rates in children these days, some parents don’t encourage physical activity more. So as far as she was concerned there wasn't anything wrong with Emery running.

I’m not sure why this put me at ease, but it did. And now we’re back at it. I’m trying to get a schedule worked out so that I can spend as much time as Emery wants on doing this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like she’s “training” for anything, or like she runs long distance nonstop. Some days she’ll run a lot, and others she’ll just run around the house. But I never make her go any farther than what she wants. This is her thing right now. Who knows, she may hate it tomorrow? But for right now, I see how much she loves running so I want to make sure that she does get to continue to run/jog/walk at her own pace for as long as she’d like. I’m also a bit excited that she and I finally have something that we can share together. Just like she shares a love for the drums with her dad, she’ll share a love for running with me.

:-)