Hiking with Kids: Proven Strategies to Eliminate Whining and Boost Excitement

OK we are NO experts (legit! lol), but ever since our hiking reel blew up, “park parents” (this was us and we still go to them🤣) have asked endless questions on how to get their kids to not whine/love hiking. So here they are plus starter gear!

If you don’t know what reel we are referring to, here it is…

FAQ: My kids are whiners…

Ok mine too and I was a whiner as a child when my Dad dragged me on hikes lol BUT you can minimize it!

1. Find a group of hiking families. We did this through Facebook. Positive peer pressure is immensely powerful! If your kids are around a bunch of friends who only play games/ sit around, they won’t be inspired by nature as much. Control their inputs!

2. Reward along the journey. Gum, little candies..etc. we never reward with food BUT when you’re hiking miles all bets are off lol.

3. Give them autonomy. Let them pick the hike. Give them a backpack full of “supplies”. Compass, binoculars, hiking shoes, swiss army knife, nature journal, etc…

4. SAVE YOURSELF & BUY THE GEAR…Kids are HEAVY and want to be carried. We don’t force ours to walk until 3 and even then we still carry sometimes because we have 4 kids and it’s not worth it lol. We got this backpack and it’s 10/10! Backpack here

5. DRIVE to cool spots! We live in SoCal so we have this opportunity, but we’d encourage you to check out the All Trails website and scout out hikes + look at the reviews from other parents! The more you take your kids and the more YOU are excited about it, the more getting outside will become a default for your family culture. 

Here’s a link to the full post with more tips/links on gear, etc.!