How to Get Home: A Toddler’s Sense of Direction in Development

A few days a week we send Jamie to a neighborhood daycare. On the nice days I walk to pick him up, since it’s about two blocks from my home.

When I first started this, it was efficient. I could just strap Jamie in the stroller and set my own pace. Now he’s bigger, walking, and more distracted. The way adults and toddlers approach a walk is very different.

I’m looking at the process of getting home so we can carry on with our day. Jamie is counting blades of grass, messing up, and starting over. I’m not saying which strategy is right, just that the differences can lead to a test of wills.

I’ve had to carry him a few times, but I try to hold it as a last resort. Jamie is learning his way home. But his sense of direction is still in development. If he had to write directions to our house from daycare, this is what they might look like:

• Wait until we’re out the door from daycare, and no one else can hear. Then whisper goodbye to the people who said bye inside.
• Run two circles around the neighbor’s ash tree.
• Fight your dad’s insistence to hold your hand, yelling and pulling your hand away.
• Find an elevated crack in the sidewalk by nearly tripping over it. When it startles you, turn around and slowly walk over it again to inspect. Nearly tripping. Again.
• Shout “leaves!” and bend over to pick up a windmill discarded on the sidewalk. Repeat for as many windmills as are seen on the sidewalk.
• When dad asks if you want to keep going home, shout “NO!!!!” Don’t be afraid to resort to a strategic temper tantrum if necessary.
• When dad asks if you want to play outside when we get home, keep shaking your head no.
• Stop in front of the house where a stranger was walking a small dog last week. Yell “Doggy??!!” in hopes it might come running out the door for you.
• Turn around and run the opposite direction as hard and fast as you can at least once.
• Find stick. Throw stick in the air. Repeat.
• Run toward the Robin in the neighbor’s yard shouting “Birrrrrrdddddiiiiieeeee!!!”
• Smile and yell “Mommy and daddy’s house!” when you see it from a distance. Stare blankly when dad explains that you live there too.
• Yell “Outside??!!” when you realize your time in the fresh air might come to an end. Stare blankly when your dad when your mutters out loud that he already offered that option to you.

I could definitely see the importance of this Google invention to add more insight into the mind of a traveling toddler. In the meantime, traveling parents everywhere can enjoy their time outside!