Had an incredible moment this morning: my 19 month old goes with me sometimes when I go on slow, non-city runs. This morning she woke up as I was about to sneak out of the house for a quick run. She didn’t look like she was going back to sleep so I said “want to go for a run?” She immediately smiled, crawled out of her bed, and went straight to her closet where her sandals are and brought them to me. We put them on and she ran over to the BOB by the front door! It was a great run and I can’t wait for the future training runs!
That’s cute.
Thats the best! My 2 yo son LOVES running. I bring him in the jogger and he yells encouragement ocasionally. “go daddy go!” Its impossible not to pick up my pace after that.
He also loves to do a cool down with me so I get him out and we run at his pace and direction. I even surprised him with his own running shoes from target. Best $10 ive ever spent! He is incredibly proud of them.
Good for you for setting a good example and positive attitude about exercise. It pays off, my daughter joined her jr high swim team this year. Im super proud since I taught her to swim.
My “just turned 6” year old has started to come along with me for runs on his bike. It makes the minutes fly by! Different stages of being a “running partner” until the day you can no longer keep up.
Awesome! I read an article quite a while ago about a survey of college aged students who were consistant exercisers. Their biggest motivating factor wasn’t looking good for spring break or the opposite sex, it was that their parents were also consistant exercisers and had set a good example.
Very cool…not so much with my kid.
One of my many “Parenting experiments” revolved around trying to figure out what, why and when my kid was “Highly active” as to try and get him a more focused in school.
We were keeping track of his behavior at home and at school and found out that he seemed to have a harder time in the AM then after recess.
So I figured, well let’s do some activity in the morning before school.
So right before I took him to school one morning I got him to run around part of our field, It was a bit over an 1/8th of mile on a trail. We finish up, he stops, looks right at me and states “Let’s NEVER do that again” 
~Matt
My “just turned 6” year old has started to come along with me for runs on his bike. It makes the minutes fly by! Different stages of being a “running partner” until the day you can no longer keep up.
Happened to me …
My swimming buddy from when he was little, now, at 13 yo, smacks me down in the pool with 56 100 Free’s, 1:05 100 Flys and Backs, and 1:16 100 Br, and he just keeps going, and going, and going … It sucks to get old and slow, but not so much when you see your kids enjoying it. 
Dan
My 2 1/2 yr old loves to run with me. “Run Daddy run” is all he will say if he hears me in the morning. On weekends when I want to put him on the mountain bike in the child seat and ride to the park to play, he says “no Daddy, go run. Run Daddy”.
Very cool, I began taking my now 6-year-old biking on early morning rides when he was 21 months, he LOVED it. We got him his first pedal bike at 3. He is now riding single track his mom can’t handle, and she’s a pretty good biker. Teaching an active lifestyle starts when they are young. I love hanging out with my son whether its on a bike, skiing or hiking. It is an absolute blast and I wouldn’t give up those times for anything.