An evening walk with Jake

Written by Gerard on Tuesday 28 October 2008

Of all our children, Jake is a wiry young fellow. Something about him is wildly energetic, and I've always felt that when he becomes grumpy at home, it's because he's bored and needs to stretch his legs.

Last night, after his friend had gone home for the evening, I noticed Jake looking grumpy and lost. Rather than allow him to wallow in his bad mood, I told him to put on his coat and we'd go for a walk. We live on the edge of town, and as we leave our street, there's a little loop road that leads us out of town and back in again. A short walk of about an hour in total.

After finally, after wrestling the reluctant youngster into his coat, we left the house. There was a moment of near-mutiny when he realised we weren't taking the car, but Jake's generally quite pliable and we started off on our walk.

It's funny how good a short walk is. Within minutes of leaving our street, Jake was holding my hand and walking at a brisk pace, all the time jabbering away about any topic that came into his head. He was amused at the fading light, as it got darker the further we walked.

There's an especially treacherous spot on the way back into town where there's no footpath and oncoming cars appear quickly. A few times, we had to jump up onto a muddy verge to avoid the traffic, getting our boots filthy. eventually, less than an hour later, we arrived home. It was nice to take that bit of alone time with Jake and get some fresh air together. This is something I'm hoping to build into my routine with all of the children over time, because I think it's important to get away from all of the distractions around the house - TV, games consoles, friends and family and just send some time relaxing and getting exercise.