Even though my son is now 5 year old, he will invariably insist on using the toddler’s swing at the playgrounds. Yes, he’s definitely getting too big for it, but nevertheless for whatever reason, he still wants to use these from time to time. Yes, he will use the other swings for bigger kids (and adults too?), but he still likes the toddler version too.

The nuisance is that he is now so big that picking him up and placing into the seat is getting kinda tough. What’s worse though is when you need to get him out of it again. There’s no way for him really to get out himself, so yes, I’m destined to help him out every time he uses these swings.

He’s getting heavy and the way too small swing seems to cling on to him fiercely.

To make matters worse, his shoes all too often get stuck in the seat when you try to pull him out. The worst is when he’s wearing his sandals, for then the back of the sandal will tend to act as a hook clinging on to the seat even more.

It’s one of those things I’m not even going to try to explain in greater details or any better than this, but I’m positive that if you are a parent and if you have had your kids in one of these toddlers’ swings, then you probably know what I’m talking about.

So when he’s stuck, and both he and I more and more frantically will try to pull him out, we both struggle more and more and it becomes harder and harder and more and more frustrating. I pull him up, but the swing just clings on to him and is just pulled up with him.

The trick is, to ease up and actually go the opposite direction, letting the feet drop back down a bit and then angle the feet better for a renewed try of pulling out from the grip of the swing – easing your way out.

There are two lessons to be learned from this:

•  One being that when you put too much force into matters, you’ll end up not getting the right results, but may actually make matters worse. The outcome you wish for will resist you. Instead ease up and things will go a whole lot smoother.
• Two being that often you will do better by actually going in the opposite direction than where you wish to end up. In fact you often will have to, if nothing else, just by a little bit, before you can return to your direction of choice.

The same point is actually made a bit by the video below: