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Why do little children run everywhere instead of walking?

Children might run rather than walk for reasons of joy rather than more practical reasons, suggest our readers - some of whom still run everywhere in adulthood

29 June 2022

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Nick David/Getty Images

Why do little children run everywhere instead of walking? Is it a legacy of sabre-toothed predators?

 

John O’Connell via Facebook

If I remember correctly, it was for the sheer joy of it.

 

Ton Smit Utrecht, The Netherlands

The running of children has nothing to do with predators. It is the joy of life that each one of us would have were it not for self-consciousness, apprehension, worry, shame and, of course, the fatigue we all experience as we get older.

 

@Holten via Twitter

Children experience time differently than adults do. A year to them, between Christmases, is like a geological…

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