What if your significant other doesn’t enjoy hiking?

What if your significant other doesn't like to hike?

Hiking almost always is more fun for children – especially those that are young – when both parents do it together with them. Then it becomes a family outing. It’ll also be a lot easier for you to keep track of the kids and handle an emergency if another adult comes along.

But sometimes your significant other doesn’t like to hike (perish the thought!). It could be the person in question didn’t have a good experience hiking as a child (their parents didn’t have the opportunity to read this guidebook, after all), or maybe he or she just doesn’t like being outside in a setting that’s not manicured.

If the former, see if they’ll give it a go with you. Ask them not to put down hiking as an activity while on the trail with the promise that if they hate it, you’ll never pester them again about it.

One adult going on the hike if your spouse/significant other doesn’t want to go certainly is fine. After all, most teachers have class sizes of more than 30 kids, children, so you with a brood of five or six is (pardon the pun) child’s play.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.