If you’re a babywearer with a toddler, then you have at some point had the experience of your toddler absolutely refusing to get in your carrier, right at the very moment when you really need to get going! It’s like they have a sixth sense about it. When my son was 14 months old, we took him backpacking in the High Sierras. We had an ambitious hiking schedule that involved 5-7 hours of hiking a day (can you tell we were first time parents!). Not surprisingly, my son started to balk at getting in the baby backpack by the middle of the second day. I put him in anyway, and he fussed and whined the whole afternoon. By the end of that day’s hiking, we were both pretty fed up. The next morning, we tried a new strategy: when we were about to load Jack up, the whole group stood around and cheered as he got loaded into his carrier. It worked like a charm! We did that for the rest of the trip and my son (and I) had a great time.
You may not have a crowd to cheer your child on the next time you need to get out the door to a doctor’s appointment but your child is playing hide and seek. You may not be inclined to do any whooping and hollering in the Target parking lot. Instead, check out this incredibly fun way to load your toddler into a back carry that will have her begging for more! The “Circus Flip” will work with any soft pack baby backpack carrier such as the Tula, Ergobaby, Beco Gemini, Pikkolo and the Kozy Carrier! It will not work with frame baby backpack carriers like the Kelty (which should be obvious, I hope, but worth a mention 🙂 )
Warning: this move is for advanced babywearers only! But if you’ve been wearing since your child was an infant, you may be that already! Please see this post for beginner suggestions.
Thanks again to Sara and Ivy for this fun how-to. And to those of you who remember that I promised you this video “next week” back in January, my apologies and thank you for hanging in there!
