How To Get Toddlers To Leave The Park

Your toddler is hanging around the park like no one cares, but you’ve been there 45 minutes and now you have to cook dinner and sort through a pile of laundry taller than the Tower of Pisa. It’s time to go home.

After several techniques to try to encourage your toddler to leave the park, you give up and go back to the old fail-safe: “Okay, I’m leaving without you.” You turn on your heel and head for the door. “Bye bye!”

At that point, your child is usually spurred into action, even though let’s face it, sometimes they’ll still ignore it anyway.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because all of us have been there, slowly losing shards of our sanity while trying to negotiate with someone who is, let’s face it, immune to negotiation.

But telling your toddler you’re leaving isn’t good news, according to a toddler expert.

“You just told them if they’re not obedient, you might leave them one day,” Deena Margolin, co-founder of Big Little Feelings and a marriage and family therapist, said in a video on Instagram.

“That’s your child’s worst nightmare: losing you.”

So what is the solution to going somewhere in a healthier way?

According to Margolin, it’s about accepting the child’s feelings (for example, saying, “You’re having so much fun. It’s hard to put it down”) and then giving them a choice.

So you could say, “It’s time to go home now. Do you want to walk or have a ride? You choose!”

To help ease the tantrums, you may also want to mention something fun you’ll do together once you’re home. Or on the way home.

And if you find your toddler still won’t move after that technique, you can add, “Leaving is hard, I’m going to help you now.” At that time you can pick them up and take them out of the park.

They can kick, they can scream, and that’s normal. “You’re there to support them through the upset feelings and at the same time keep a boundary,” says Margolin.

And if you just don’t have time for all that, or if your toddler is resistant to being sweet-talked to, try these time-tested tips from HuffPost UK readers.

Be positive about leaving and what you are going to do next.

Keep it positive, for example, it’s not that you’re leaving the park, it’s that you’re going home to play Lego. And warning of 5 and 1 minute. At each warning, say “what would you like to do before we leave?” Find a nice leaf/stone/flower and be encouraged to take it home. Good luck!

— Dr. Jen Wills Lamacq (@JenWillsLamacq) May 24, 2023

When I was babysitting for one summer, I created an activity bingo card for my son. We’d go somewhere cool/fun and find/do something there, and then put a star sticker on that square.

So it was a fun game to go out and get the next star! It worked great!

—Nicole Barbosa (@NicoleBarbosaPR) May 24, 2023

Distract them with something.

Try a race to the car/fence/lamppost… I bet I can beat you to the car… Ready set gooooo!

Distraction is your best friend to reduce tantrums and noncompliance ????

— Fi Star-Stone (@FiStarStone) May 25, 2023

Give them lots of warnings. Timers can be very useful!

Always give them a timer, eg 5 more minutes, 2 more minutes, etc., and encourage them with an equally fun activity to do next!

— Jenna Shea (@JenMcDav) May 24, 2023

I make sure to give plenty of warnings, explain why we have to go, and tell them what happens next and why that too (maybe) will be fun and exciting. Sometimes I have to use a little bribery…

—Kat Storr (@KatStorrWriter) May 24, 2023

My kids needed advance warning. I would tell them at 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 minutes how much time was left. It gave them time to finish what they were doing before leaving. No tantrums and often they were done before time was up. It also works at home.

-Nicky (@msnicky14) May 25, 2023

Countdown: “3 more slides and then home time, 3..2..1..yeah, all set, time to go!”

False negotiation: “how many slides before we go home, 2? OK 3.”

Options: “1 more spin before you go, slide, or the monkey bars.”

Failing that, bribe with the promise of paw patrol and refreshments.

—Carly Whitewood (@carly_whitewood) May 25, 2023

And if all else fails, bribery…

Distraction….we are going to do other activities. Sometimes, we go to the store to buy x sweets (he loves fruit, so it’s not a big deal for me to say this!)

—Bethan Sayed (@bethanmsayed) May 25, 2023

Always always offers ice cream ????????

– selldogmillionaire (@RachelSellers11) May 25, 2023

Shamelessly my answer is: more bribes. ????

I am forced to encourage my son to leave the slide at each visit (ANYTHING: favorite food, songs, videos, toys he has at home, games, puzzles, books, or, oddly enough, the promise to look at the buses in the bus stop on the way home!)

— Dr. Holly PJ (@Holly_PJ) May 25, 2023

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