You’re in Pain? Walk it Off.

Kids react to pain, some kids overreact to pain. This is fact.

If a child trips and is immediately met by Mommy or Daddy scooping them into their arms and comforting them, falling becomes something that NEEDS to be comforted. The next time they fall, they will look for those comforting arms. It’s science man.

My middle child is the clumsiest person I’ve ever met, other than her mother. She’s walked into walls, fell off the bed, and even taken nasty tumbles learning to ride a bike. She is not much of a crier though. She might look my direction to see if I give any indication of pain. Once she notices my “you’re fine” look, she’s back at it. If she looks my way and I have my “OMG, how are you still alive?!” look, she balls her eyes out. Science.

After having 3 girls who are the toughest kids on my block, I feel that I’m an expert in the “Walk it Off Method”. I’m kind of a Walk it Off Guru.

In order to employ the Walk it Off Method, all you have to do is tell your child to “Walk it Off”. Here are a few examples:

• Child: “Daddy I hit my head!”                        Dad: “You’ll be fine, just walk it off.”
• Child: “I smashed my finger in the door.”       Dad: “You sure did, walk it off.”
• Child “My leg is bending the wrong way!”      Dad: “Crap, don’t walk this one off.”

There are times when the Walk it Off Method is a bad idea. Broken limbs are one of those times. You just have to use your own judgement. If it would hurt YOU it’s ok to let them cry. If they stub their toe, walk it off. It’s pretty simple.

When parents don’t use Walk it Off

I can always tell if a kid’s parent uses the Walk it Off Method and when they don’t. For example, the neighbour kid came over one day and smashed his finger in the door. He cried like he had been the victim of a drive-by shooting. I brought the kid inside and I told him “Stop crying little man, just walk it off”. He did the exact opposite, he cried for what seemed to me a total of 3 hours.  The boy then went home. My oldest daughter turned to me and said “what a baby”.

Parents, you don’t want a little girl calling your son a baby. I can promise you that.

If you imagine your child going to school and being the “kid that cries”, try using the patented Walk it Off Method. Your children will grow up to thank you later.

Does it hurt that bad? (DIHTB)

The Walk it Off Method doesn’t always work. Every now and then, your child will cry when you know they’re OK. In those times, get down to their eye level and empathetically ask “Does it hurt that bad?”. This will, no doubt, throw them off their crying game.

This DIHTB method works wonders after the Walk it Off Method has failed. It works because the child will internally ask themselves “Should I be crying?” and the answer is NO. Your child may continue crying anyway. If your child is still crying, don’t panic. The DIHTB method has one simple follow up question in case of failure, “Is somebody knocking at the door?”. If that confused YOU, then you’ll understand why it works.

The Takeaway (TL;DR)

If your child slips and falls, let them decide if it hurts. 90% of the crying is because of other peoples reaction. That statistic was 100% made up.