Mom signs toddler up for new activity, realizes she overlooked one detail

A mom who signed her toddler daughter up for a 5K run, hoping it would help her sleep, has reflected on the unexpected outcome.

It all started when Shelby, from Tacoma, Washington, was looking for a way to get her toddler daughter to sleep at night.

A young child’s sleep troubles can have a significant impact on their parents.

A 2020 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that toddlers’ night wakings and prolonged sleep onset were associated with increased parental distress, highlighting the significant impact children‘s sleep problems can have on parents’ well-being.

Back in 2022, Shelby and her husband were struggling to get their young daughter to sleep. That’s when he came up with a unique idea: bedtime runs.

“Bedtime runs just came from her having too much energy at bedtime,” Shelby told Newsweek. “So, my husband had the idea to take her to a trail by our house and let her run wild for as long as she wanted. It worked really well, and she loved it.”

All of that led Shelby to sign up her daughter, then just 19 months old, for an unconventional toddler activity: a 5K run. “I had noticed that my daughter loved running,” she said. “I looked up fun runs near us, and there was a free 5K fun run, so I decided to take her.”

The Community Corn Roast and 5K Family Fun Run/Walk is organized every year by Tacoma Central Church, with funds raised going toward a local food bank.

It’s an event for the whole family, but it’s fair to say Shelby’s daughter was the only toddler competing. “Race organizers were definitely surprised that she was running it. At the starting line, they were jokingly asking her if she was going to run the race and were very surprised when I said, ‘Yes,'” Shelby said. “But they cheered her on so much!”

Though eyebrows were raised, Shelby said her daughter soon silenced any doubters. In fact, by the end she even had a few supporters. “She had a blast and ran and walked basically the whole thing by herself,” she said. “She was one of the last finishers. Everyone was super supportive of her.”

Though Shelby may not have entirely realized what she was signing her daughter up for that day, their participation proved to be the catalyst for more running. “She’s run other 5Ks since then, but I definitely shifted more toward finding shorter kids‘ runs. Since then, she’s mostly run kids’ races ranging from 1K to 3K,” Shelby said. “I actually started running because of her. I couldn’t even run a mile without walking before I had her, but keeping up with her got me into running. I actually ran my first half marathon this year, the San Francisco Marathon.”

Shelby decided to revisit what happened in the hope that it helps other parents realize, as she did that day, not to underestimate their kids and not be afraid to try new things.

“What I would want people to take away is that kids are more capable than we think,” she said. “It’s not about raising a future track star or superstar athlete. It’s just about having fun and taking things at their pace.”

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Emma Lee-Sang