For All of The "Parking Lot Runners" Out There

It's been a few weeks since my last post. As I'm sure all of you are very familiar with, sometimes you just have a whirlwind of things that need to all be handled at once which can lead to delays in finding time for yourself. However, I also spent some time working on a bunch of different things for this blog, so hopefully there won't be a stretch of time like that ever again!

That's enough of an explanation - now on to the post! (But first, an adorable picture of some baby hands because we are going to talk about holding hands in parking lots today. I'll never get over those adorable little baby hand dimples!)

Sometimes, kids are runners. They get out of the car, and they don’t think to look around to make sure they’re safe. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, motor vehicle traffic crashes are a leading cause of death of children. There are some very depressing pie charts and bar graphs, but I’m not going to put them here. I’m just going to put this very long link if you are interested and want to look at some depressing numbers: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813456#:~:text=Of%20the%2042%2C939%20traffic%20fatalities,were%20children%2014%20and%20younger.&text=Child%20traffic%20fatalities%20increased%20by,)%20to%202021%20(1%2C184).&text=An%20estimated%20162%2C298%20children%20were,increase%20from%20139%2C058%20in%202020.

                So how do we keep our children safe? They don’t always listen as they’re being chased after, being shouted at, “Hold my hand!” Small children don’t care that in 2021, there were 176 child pedestrians that became the statistic for traffic fatalities. They don’t have the ability to think that people driving in cars might not see them or might see them too late.

                What worked for one of my aunts is something that might work for you. She told her son who was a parking lot runner that she was scared of parking lots. She would tell him how he needed to hold her hand because she was so scared of being in a parking lot, that she needed him to protect her. He LOVED that so much, and it worked. He would hold her hand and not run ahead in the parking lot.

                Definitely try this if you have a runner! I hope it works for you like it did for my aunt!