u/ComradeShorty

Hi all! We're an EU couple looking for advice and experiences on hiking with a small kid (soon to be 3 years old) who is too large to still be carried in his own rucksack on my (dad's) back.

My wife and I were passionate hikers but after we got our first kid we toned it all down. We did easier and shorter routes with him with a Deuter rucksack for kids - which worked great. But now he's too big and heavy for it and we're both eager and anxious to transition to him just walking with us as well as starting maybe some medium hiking routes. We'd like to start going to the Alps and the Dinaric Alps in the Western Balkans again, but we're not sure what to expect and how to prepare. Do we just start small and see how our son responds both physically and psychologically (considering he's a todddler)? What about safety? As a toddler, he's still a bit clumsy and I'm afraid of taking him somewhere where tripping or, worse, falling could be dangerous. I have in my memory from hiking in the Alps and seeing some toddlers being strapped with a rope to their parents, although they were walking on their own.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. We'd be grateful for any advice and suggestions!

I work at a university and most of my work is reading books, writing hand-written notes on a desk and then sometimes writing on my PC. To add to that, I'm 2 meters tall (6.5feet) and my neck is almost always bent at a pretty big angle because I'm looking down onto the desk.

I've started doing regular stretching exercises for the neck and shoulders, as well as strength exercises for the upper back, but I'm afraid that won't be enough because of the way I need to work for my job. I can't think of any other way to read+write without doing that with a bent neck, looking straight down. Even if I read on a bed or couch, my neck is bent pretty hard.

Is there anything I can do with the way I read and write?