GregHowley.com

This is a post I've considered writing for some time. It should be very brief, and I imagine that most people who follow my blog will have pretty much zero interest in this.

It's got to do with how I hold my toddler's hand when we walk together. Sometimes we'll be walking together through a parking lot or on a sidewalk near a busy street, and it's pretty critical that she not pull her hand away and run out into traffic. I could carry her, but she loves to walk and run - she wouldn't be happy being carried.

I've got a specific way of holding her hand that I've done ever since my now 6-year-old was a toddler. I'll including a photo here. I let her grip my thumb in her hand so that she's got something solid to hold onto. From there, I place my first two fingers on either side of her wrist in a kind of pincer grip. This results in a comfortable, firm, and relatively gentle grip that allows me to ensure that she won't let go and go running off without holding her hand so hard that I cut off circulation. It's become second nature, and I've had to remind myself not to do it with my older daughter when we walk together because, come on, she's six now.