I cannot get it through these kids heads that there is NO running in my house. I have had to stop kids from running in my house everyday for three years.

I have Rules posted on my door ( which of course they cannot read since they are 3 yrs old ) but whenever someone runs, I stop them, have them walk over and we read that rule.

Is this something that just isnt going to stop, ever ??

Or any tricks you have to get them to stop ?

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I have one that constantly insists on running in the house and I always make him go back to where he started running, and WALK to where he was going. He's not running as much any more ...

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I have this with mine too. I have run out of tactics. I would love to figure out what works.

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I used to say no, but now unless someones gets hurt, I just don't care, If there running like crazy, and little ones are around, I'll send the older ones down stairs to run, I try to pick and choose my battles, kind of like with my husband, and running I realized was a never ensing battle not worth fighting. There not really hurting anything by running, Same with screaming, as long as no one is sleeping, scream away, doesn't bother me.

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I have the hardest time understanding when it became ok to run around and scream and stuff in the house??? When I was a kid (I'm only 26, it wasn't that long ago) I never would have gotten away with it, and to do it in someone else's home is just ... ugh I don't understand it.

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This is exactly what I do. Works well with your own kids also of they run off ahead of you and don't want to wait lol. I make my daughter stop, walk back to me and then we walk together. It really works for your kids or DCK's.

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Until they trip over something and smash their face into a wall. Nope. We walk int he house, we run outside.

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i have placed all the furniture in a way that they can't run in the house. the daycare room has "centers", the dining room (where we eat, do crafts, messy stuff, etc.) is too small, the couch seperates the dining/living room, and they know NOT to step a foot farther then the couch....lol

my 8 yr old son still has issues w/ running in the halls at school, especially down the stairs. his teacher(s) always make him go back and do it properly. he's realizing now that its alot of work, and is not doing it as much

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I kind of feel like my house is for children during the day, and I dont feel that they run and scream wild, But their kids, and they like to chase each other and they love to be loud, and where I feel that is disrespectful in someones house your visiting, I do not feel it is disrespectful, in my house, because my house is a place for children to be children and have fun. especially in the winter, when they dont get to get outside and run. And my own son, has never gone running anywhere else. Every child gets in trouble for running in the halls at school , I used to get yelled at for that constantly and I was never allowed to even walk fast in my house.

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But they dont run wild, I have had a kid trip and bust their lip open while walking. And I guess my house is really open, and anyways, it rarely happens. I'm not arguing that people should let children run, I'm just saying I just decided it wasn't worth my breath anymore.

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I have a problem with this too. So I'm going to type up "Speeding Ticket" with a cute car by it and print off about 5 and have them laminated. If a child is "speeding" (running) they get sent to a parking space (which will be an area that looks like a parking space with the lines made of colorful duct tape on the carpet). They will get one warning and then the second time they get a speeding ticket and must go sit in their parking space.

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For me I just remind them that inside is for walking and outside is for running just like using indoor and outdoor voices. I am not sure how well that works for me, but that's all I got lol

Maybe practice how we walk indoors and how you can run outdoors?

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I make them go back and walk back and forth 5 x, it does help.

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[quote=AmandasFCC;47204]Until they trip over something and smash their face into a wall. Nope. We walk int he house, we run outside.[/QU

Oh this just bugs me, and if they run outside, they never get hurt? No one ever runs and scrapes their knees on pavement? And keep in mind when your children get old enough to drive, they could get into a bad car accident and end up in the hospital, so just dont ever let them do that.......kids get hurt!........walking running biking, jumping on a trampoline, in a bouncy house, my son yesterday fell back in a kiddie chari and gave himself a pretty nice bump.

AGAIN I am not saying to let children run in your houses!

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Running in the house (or not) hasn't really been on my radar. Upstairs there usually isn't enough room, but downstairs it's fair game. Downstairs is our "large muscle" play space and there is plenty of room for them to run, and they do. And jump and climb and hop and skip and crawl...

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And I'm also talking about 1, 2 and 3 year olds, I dont have any school agers that could really do damage.

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LOL! I have mostly 1-2 yr olds and honestly running outside is more of an accident waiting to happen than it is inside. Everytime we go outside we get a skinned knee, scratch, bump, etc. At least in our play area it's padded. That being said, they know better than to run anywhere BUT in the play area.

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Well to each their own, I have GRASS in my backyard and to be honest I haven't even had a scraped knee. If they fall they fall, but I think teaching them appropriate behaviour is paramount and for me, we don't run indoors.

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My kids usually don't run in the house, but sometimes they get excited or just really wired and end up running/chasing. When they get like that I give them the choice to play something else or crawl instead of run. A few times crawling around the chair instead of chasing the friend by running and they are ready to play something else. It's amazing how quickly the crawling seems to calm them down

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I don't allow running in the house either. I agree that accidents can happen regardless of whether you're inside or outside but I think outdoors there is generally more of an open area. Inside there are so many things to trip on ie: throw rugs, furniture, other children, etc. Not to mention the fact that a falling child can also do damage to your things. Obviously the child's safety is priority but I value my things as well and really wouldn't want to ask a parent for reimbursement for broken items. Also, even though small children aren't in school yet, they will be eventually and running in school is not tolerated. They need to learn what is acceptable behavior. It's the same way with screaming inside, we don't do that either because again, it's not generally tolerated. I think it's best to prepare them for "real life."

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I agree with you. If these children are spending the majority of their waking hours with us, then I believe we should be teaching them proper manners and behaviors, such as not running indoors. Two and three year olds aren't going to distinguish where they "can" or "can't" run- if we let them do it at our house, they'll do it at anyones house-and then wonder why they are being reprimanded for it. I have the same rule. NO RUNNING! Then it's one warning, then time out!

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had that all day yesterday I must have said stop running 1,000 times finally I made them sit and read a book and then we went and ran outside not looking forward to the cooler weather when we can't get out to run so much

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Kids are not stupid, They learn that there are different rules, for different situations, and different places/houses, and I think this is very important for them to learn, along with listening and respecting adults...most of my daycare kids can carry sippy cups everywhere at their house, but they know at my house, cups all stay at the table, The children know that during play and awake times, they can be loud, but during nap time if someone wakes up, they must sit quietly, my son always looks to me for permission to do something if were somewhere away from home, he knows at grandmas house he can put in all the DVD's himeself, but at my house and anyone elses he never touches the DVD's without permission. So I think its an unfair statement to say if my child runs in my house, their going to run wild in school, but every child will "forget rules" and need to be reminded throughout their whole life. If the kids are running enough and getting out of hand, they are told to slow down, but that never really happens, because they know how far they can go (most of the time)

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Ahhhh I love to let children be children and couldn't agree with this statement anymore than I do! However, it is also our job as parents/guardians/caregivers to keep children safe!! Children should be let be children, but they also need guidance and need to be taught what is safe and what is not!! There is NO running in my house either! Even though I would love to own a gymnasium and let the children run their brains out I do not own one and therefore there is no running in my house! My house has a fairly open floor plan, but there is still corners and furniture and a slippery wood floor and it is not a wide open spaced area for them to run! Outside is another story I do say run away and we have races all of the time! I do not however let or like a 1 year old running down my paved driveway and will pick them up and set them in the grass and say run all you want over here! Again keeping them safe! It is called prevention! You are right kids will be kids and they will get hurt, but it is our jobs to prevent and illiminate what we can!! My daughter has had stitches twice now from running in the house! So no I obviously haven't come up with a solution to stop the constant running, but I will keep eliminating as much of it as I can to keep all of the kids as safe as I can!

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My son recieved six staples in his head, from having a cozy coupe car tip over with him in at, at his old daycare, One of my daycare kids, broke their leg this summer going down a slide at the park, and one of my neighbors had there kid in need of stitches from running and not watching and going right into a tree. I do not believe that by letting the older kids chase around the center island, that I am not keeping them safe, My husband and I chase our children in the house all the time, its a game chasing to grab them to get jammies on, I have a song during dance time, That keeps getting faster and faster while we march around the living room until were almost all running. But I have had many more injuries outside. They'll get injured anywhere, I dont think its fair to say I am not keeping my kids safe by doing this, again I am not telling anyone that they should let children run wild in the house, and I do not allow them to run wild.

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jewels, I don't believe I recall anyone saying that you don't keep your kids safe. We're all just voicing our opinions on the subject-which btw, we're getting away from. Sorry Heather! Heather, I haven't had any one trick work to get my kids to stop running, I usually give a warning and then a time out. I've also tried what some previous posters have done, and make them go back to where they started running, and walk. I loved the speeding ticket and parking space idea!! Although theonly forseeable problem with that might be that the kids LIKE to get tickets, and turn it into a game! Hence- more running!!

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I have a 4 and 7 year old. I agree that children should not run in the house because accidents happen. I also agree that there should be a time where parents can organize a short safe oberved fun run. I've read some of the suggestions posted and offer the following guidline that can be used as a teaching tool to instruct children about running in the house.

No Running in the House
The rule is no running in the house
Acceptable behavior is to walk inside the house
Running is for outside
Unacceptable behavior is to run inside the house
Running is not for inside the house
Running in the house is not safe
If you run in the house, you can have an accident (trip, fall, and hurt yourself)
If you are disobeying the rule, you will perform the following learning measures
You will walk back and forth across the floor 6 times
You will get a speeding ticket with one of corrective measures for violation of the rule
You will be sent to the parking space for 2 minutes for speeding (running)
You will sit in the parking space for 4 minutes for speeding
You will not play with your toy for 8 minutes
You will go to your room for a timeout of 15 minutes
We love you but the rule is no running in the house

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Do you mean they are not allowed in the livingroom area?

After taking down my christmas tree today, I am thinking of doing some rearranging here....

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I do not allow running in my house either. For safety reasons.

But all my 2 & 3 YO boys want to do is run.

I arrange stuff so they cannot run back and forth but they

still run. Grrrrr, just cannot get them to stop.

It does not help that these two are cousins and play

together at their homes all the time and of course are

running and wrestling.

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yeah. only the SA are allowed in the "living Room" area. thats their space to have toys with small parts, like legos, puzzles, etc. All my SA are really good, they dont jump on furniture, or any of that.

the littles must stay in the daycare room, or in the dining area where we do messy stuff.

All three rooms (and the kitchen) are open and run into each other, so i can see no matter what area i am in.

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when I was in college, they taught us that if running became an issue, that you needed to change your floor plan.

So if the kids have a wide open space, then you need to rearrange your furniture, gate, or device to prevent them from having that open space to run a muck..

If I see the kids starting to get a little hyper, we dance, jump, or go outside if the weather is permitting....

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This is my sisters philosophy (she does not do daycare). And her house is known as the crazy house. Every kid we know assumes you can act as you please in that house, wrestle, run, scream, go crazy. She allows it all. Her kids can not behave at all in her house (or any other public place for that matter). They do however know that running and acting like that is not tolerated in my house, period. I think it is important to teach children how to behave and control themselves as it is not ok to just run and scream etc whenever wherever you choose. I think you are setting yourself up for trouble if your kids can run and do as they please.

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I haven't found a way to stop it, yet.

My 3 and 4 yo love to chase each other. I try to slow down the chasing, but also allow them scooter (razor scooters) all through the downstairs.

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just dont trip them.... they like that

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Same problem here. I've tried everything I can think of, too. I had also heard about re-arranging your set-up so they won't run as much. So we made the wide doorway (about the width of two doors side-by-side) into the width of one doorway so it wasn't as easy to run the length of two rooms. Also arranged furniture, etc so they didn't have as much open space to run. It helped cut down on the running quite a bit for the past year, but lately they haven't let anything slow them down... And once one child runs, they all start running back and forth, back and forth, from one room to the other, around the tables, through the (now smaller) doorway, and back and forth again... I can't allow running either, because it is not safe for them to run indoors (outdoors there's more wide open space and pea gravel, so if they fall, they aren't usually hurt. And with more space, they aren't as likely to run into each other). Indoors, however, they are always running into each other and knocking heads, or one child's head bangs into another child's nose, or they slip and fall on the hard flooring and smack their head, elbows, knees, hands, etc into the floor. Or slip and fall against a table or other piece of furniture, banging their head on it... It's a given, as soon as someone starts running there's almost immediately someone crying because they got hurt. But they don't seem to learn from it.
But you obviously already know this otherwise you wouldn't have asked! So all I can advise (what I do) is time-outs after the first warning (I look at like this: If they continue to run after you've reminded them of the rule and told them to stop, it has then turned into deliberate disobedience. Plus, if they can't stop on their own, they need "help" stopping), also if you can arrange your set-up differently (or put obstacles in the running path) so there isn't any wide open space, it may help at least slow them down. Also, outside on the way to the playground (the fenced in play area), when they run I have them walk back to the door, and then back to the playground. this has helped a lot when they're outdoors in an unsafe area for running, so maybe it could help for indoors also?Someone mentioned having them crawl if they want to chase someone... I'm going to try that. After all, the professionals say to re-direct them rather than disciplining them... But I really like the idea too. I always feel guilty for putting someone in time out just because of running. And it only slows down the one child anyway. The rest continue running until I physically stop them and sit them in a chair, too. I begin feeling like a traffic cop in a busy intersection where no one's paying any attention!
I think this cold weather is what's causing it. No time spent outdoors to get their energy out. I can't wait til summer! They use up so much energy playing outdoors, that when they come in, they're much calmer and quieter! But in the winter they're stuck inside more often that not, and therefore can't get rid of their energy in appropriate ways.

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I LOVE this idea! I am always stopping a kid from running. I am going to implement this next week!

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