God, some of my best memories are riding on my dad’s shoulders when I was a wee one. I thought that was one of the joys of being a kid!
I had a friend who carried his 2-3 year old daughter that way. Somehow, he dropped her once. Broke both legs. She was in practically a body cast for a couple of months. Whew, that was not fun.
I’ve seen a few people smack their kids’ heads on the overhead bin or the door jam…
You might want to take the clues you are given.
(Nothing personal, it just seems like a really bad idea regardless of the gruesome anecdotes.)
I’d be less worried about him falling than I would hitting his head on something. A few weekends ago we were at the state fair, walking along in a relatively slow-moving crowd. A guy with a kid on his shoulders was apparently in a hurry so he excused himself past all of us, jogging his way through…and almost ran his son’s head into the overhang on a food vendor stand.
Whatever, dude. My little guy’s favorite method of dismounting is to let daddy grab one ankle and swing him down, head first, toward the ground. We call it the “Express Elevator.” He asks for it by name.
Sorry about your friend, but I’m not going to let mine drop. Won’t happen.
I will now have to teach Squeaky to say that. That’s one more thing for Mrs Magill to roll her eyes at.
You have to use good judgement and be aware of your surroundings when doing this.
it’s safe if you tie the kids shoe laces together. bonus is that when you set them down they can’t run away like greased lightning.
kids that age are speaking phrases and simple sentences.
‘low bridge’ should be one of them. it also helps the kid realize depth perception.
Overhead objects are an issue, you have to be aware when inside crowded shops and restaurants for crap hanging from the ceiling too and duck.
But I just can’t understand the dropping thing, I’m holding his ankles and he is holding my face or head. Like I said even if he were to drop straight back I have his ankles. And any leaning he does is obviously detectable by his weight shifting. Holding him on one arm is basically the same height.
I always enjoyed carrying my children like that.
When it was safe to do so.
Like a responsible person.
Which I am sure grude is.
It should be pretty easy to get the punch in - simply grasp your child’s legs with your non-dominant hand across your chest and smack 'em. If you need to run away the over the shoulder seating is good for balance. Really it’s a good setup.
Folks who feel the need to insert their opinions of other’s parenting skills (beyond obvious child abuse) are worthy of contempt. There are many ways to raise children, each a culmination of the experiences and culture of the parents, and though some practices may seem wrong to me I am not willing to impose my belief system on other people and on that note I insist the same from them.
Good luck grude. Congratulations on loving your son, the important part that I read in your op.
Shoulder riding is dangerous! You should stay on the road, even if traffic is moving really slowly.
Also the shoulder riding is ESSENTIAL inside stores, the only option is shopping carts with seat belts. You can’t carry a toddler on one arm who wants down and shop, no way no how. On the shoulders he wisely decides a struggle is not in his interest.
Grocery stores seem to be set up for a toddler to cause havoc, I mean a pyramid display of pricey liquor in glass bottles?! You gotta be kidding me!
I know! It’s when the kid is riding on your shoulders but facing backwards so your face is squashed into his stomach and you can’t see where you’re going! Yeah, that is dangerous.
Eh, it can happen to everyone, even you. It’s one thing to decide to take the risk–hell, I take many other risks myself–it doesn’t seem quite right though to insist it could never happen.
Anyway, I let my kids ride around Guatemala City without car seats… Who has room for a car seat when there are 5 adults and 4 kids?
The last time I did this there was an issue with a ceiling fan. The mom did not freak out, fortunatly: “Meh, kids are tough, he’ll stop crying in a few minutes.” That was this moms first and only kid, he seems to be on his way to a nice life, he started college this fall. I am old as fuck.
I didn’t insist it could never happen, I’m quite aware that anything that takes me down is going to take him down too like slips or other falls. But without taking me down it seems near impossible for him to go down, unless both my hands were occupied or something.
People are jackasses. I’ve had strangers come running after me to tell me how my child is going to die because of something I’ve done. Last winter I had a lot of people tell me my baby was going to freeze to death because she wasn’t bundled to the point of no longer having use of her arms and legs, yet she is happily sleeping next to me in the bed right at this moment showing absolutely no damage from her cold weather exposure.
Two days ago a woman jammed a hand into the elevator door to stop it from closing so that she could tell me to “fix my baby’s neck” and then went on her way. I looked in the stroller and found that she had fallen asleep and tilted her head to the side. In my opinion you don’t wake a sleeping baby for anything that isn’t absolutely necessary so I just let her sleep that way, confident in the knowledge that if she were truly uncomfortable she would wake up or adjust her position on her own.
I’ve learned to respond with a simple, “She’s fine, thank you.” It takes care of most horrible comments without starting a fist fight.
Just yesterday in a grocery a woman told me to stop my son from hurting his neck, he was sitting in the seat on the cart leaning his head way back so he could look at the ceiling. I am like lady if he was in pain he wouldn’t do it!
I’m starting to think it is the single man with child thing, when my wife is with me comments are rare.
I remember when I was like seven years old and my Mom and I were before-school shopping. This would have been about 1978. I needed a new lunchbox and I had found a really cool KISS lunchbox that I wanted, despite never having listened to their music at the time. A lady hurriedly approached me as I was standing next to my Mom and grasped the lunchbox and said “Oh no, you don’t want this one. These men (the band was picture in full costume on it in their Destroyer pose) worship the Devil!” and she snatched the lunchbox out of my hand. My Mom, not really knowing what to do with this obviously crazy lady, said to me “Maybe she’s right, let’s look for another one” and the lady, appeased, walked away. Then Mom grabbed the KISS lunchbox and put it in the cart. Fuck you, crazy lady, wherever you are!
I’m with grude on this. It’s comfortable and, while not perfect, is probably one of the safest ways to protect the kid from loss and injury. Just beware of doorways and hanging stuff.
The most likely injury for my first kid would have been from her tendency to throw herself backward. She loved hanging by her ankles, and her abs were strong enough to pull herself back up. But she never looked behind her first, and one time she did it while I was only holding one foot. And it makes unsuspecting strangers scream.
Oh, and with infants there’s the issue of them digging their fingernails into dad’s ears.
2 of my 3 kids are incredibly clumsy. If allowed to walk, crawl, or sit, they WILL find a way to get a concussion. They’re much safer being held.