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Toddlers, who learn to walk well, often insist on being held and carried by parents. Parents have to understand that they are not just being lazy but there are other factors that prompt them to cry for being carried by adults. The most important of them are:
- Children like the view they are able to get when their heads are at the same height at ours. During toddler hood, kids are very small and they seem to miss most of the things that happen or exist above their level of sight.
- Of course, all children are conditioned to feel comfort from being held. They have been soothed all through the babyhood by being held close to their hearts and even as toddlers, they feel more at peace when they are held.
- Babies tend to be more at alert or afraid of new places or strangers and they feel safer and more secure in your strong arms. You are the world to them and they feel that no harm can come to them as long as you are with them.
- Children feel that are paid no attention, if they are at your level and close to your ears, where they can easily talk to you and you will easily listen to whatever they say.
You may relieve yourself of the load of carrying a child constantly by:
- Offering to hold the hand of the child.
- Setting limits such as you will carry the child for five minutes but then he will have to walk for ten minutes or you will carry the child to the store but the child will have to walk inside it.
- If you are at home and not walking and the child just wants to be held to see what you are doing, you may make him sit on a high chair while you cook, so that he can watch you while he can be busy trying to pull of a lid from a container or doing something else to keep his hands busy.
- While walking, if the child feels that he is not able to see what you are seeing and thus, wants to be carried, you may try showing him interesting things at his level, such as flowers, dogs and other children.