Between travel and basic life craziness, my blogging time has been suffering! I asked my favorite blogging family member, my cousin, Kimberly, of Fit Disney Mom to write for me. I love what she wrote! Enjoy!

Passing the Torch

By Kimberly Stroh

Whether you’ve been running for years or just started, you’ve already felt the many benefits of running. It doesn’t matter if you run an occasional 5k or you’re a seasonal marathoner, running has gifted you with it’s various perks. Once you’ve realized how much you’ve gained, both mentally and physically from running, it’s a natural desire to share the experience with others.

I always want to share the gift of running and most recently, I’ve started to introduce my toddler to running. I think children need the physical release energy and it provides us with a new way of bonding. Since the motion of running is an innate instinct that we developed from our ancestors, children don’t even need directions on how to run. When I watch my toddler run, it amazes me how he runs from his heart. He is the most joyous runner as he leads chest first and head up with a smile.

As his parent, I plan to foster his love of running as he gets older. Even though running is natural for children, it’s our responsibility to guide them– whether it’s running for a team sport or competitive running. I don’t expect him to race like I do (although that sounds amazing), but I plan to provide the tools and encouragement he needs for running:

• Buy your child proper fitting shoes so they are at less risk for injury.

•Provide a safe environment for running and actively watch them.

• Teach them how to listen to their body. Show then how sprinting makes them feel versus running moderately.

• Tell them that walking is OK too when it gets challenging.

• Participate in a local kids race with them and show them that not everybody finishes first in a race (or life).

• Use words that provide empowerment to their self-esteem after a run.

By being an active runner yourself, you can inspire your child to run as well. It’s incredible how kids copy our actions! Even though my son can’t talk yet, he has enough non verbal communication skills to practice running while I guide him. Even if he chooses to do something else one day, he will have learned valuable life skills from running. If he only takes one lesson away from running, I hope it is perseverance. Having the perseverance to keep going when life is difficult is a strong characteristic and I’d be proud to say he learned it from running.

So go be a runner, leader and parent who passes the torch. The benefits of running are multi-generational and  can potentially teach our children valuable life lessons.