u/No_Idea5507

Hello my husband and I will be taking a 12 hour road trip with our 2 year old in December and Roanoke is our halfway point. We plan to stop and get out for an hour or two and give her a break from her car seat before continuing on and we’re trying to get a game plan in place as far as a place to eat and maybe if there’s any parks nearby? Trying not to stray too far from the interstate and add time/mileage so looking for recs on toddler friendly places she can just run around for a bit if there are any. Thanks in advance!

FTM/SAHM to an 18 month old. I was so looking forward to this summer and being outside a lot now that she’s older and walking. I know summer hasn’t even officially started and a lot can change in weeks with these little ones but I’m feeling so defeated and like a failure of a mom. We live in a very walkable area: trails, green spaces, parks, lots of indoor play places, library, everything. I’m more than willing to drive to places that aren’t walkable. The problem is she will not walk outside or in public. She does not want to be put down and throws a fit if I try. (I don’t think it’s her shoes cause she’ll run all around the house in her shoes no problem) We do lots of walks and she’s more than content to just be pushed in her stroller, we stop at green spaces/ponds and have picnics. Trying to get her adjusted to being out of her stroller and not being held and hoping her curiosity will eventually get the best of her and she’ll get up and venture off. So far no such luck. For reference we live in an apartment so our only outdoor space at home is our balcony which we spend time on but we also live on the 3rd floor and she can’t be trusted to not throw stuff off the balcony so we only have a select few toys we can bring out there. She doesn’t last long before getting bored out there and starts fussing. We watch more Ms Rachel than I care to admit to some days (writing this as we cuddle on the couch watching ms Rachel going on our third day of rain). I think we’re both getting equally bored of her toys and can recite her books by heart. She’s still teething so lots of stuff still goes in her mouth so we try coloring with our beeswax crayons but they still end up in her mouth numerous times *sigh*. I’ve been looking into those toddler towers to try simple baking with her even just play with pouring water or flour or whatever from one bowl to another but she seems so little still idk if kids this age can even do stuff like that quite yet. Idk what I’m looking for from this, maybe advice, maybe just knowing other people have been here as well and that she’ll eventually become more adventurous as she gets a little older and we can go out and do more stuff without carrying her the whole time. Thanks in advance for any additional ideas or just words of encouragement and solidarity! Please leave the judgmental comments about TV time to yourselves as I already beat myself up over it. 🙃

Interested in maybe getting my 18M old private swim lessons to be done at our apartment pool. We live in the Cane Bay Area. Curious if anyone offers this and what your rates are? Not sure we will 100% do it depending on rates as we are one income household and also not sure she would tolerate a stranger but looking for some info if we did decide to try!