Packed with useful info, but it doesn't mention the most important thing: how to lie to the kids! I myself learned this skill one day on a hilly 9 mile hiking trail near my house. There was a dad and three boys, one of whom was SO LOUD AND WHINY I was tempted to chuck a pine cone at him. The dad was calm and patient but basically lied to the kid the entire time by telling him that a shortcut was just a little ways away. I happened to know that this was only true in the sense that the 9 mile trail could become at least a 12 mile trail without taking a certain fork in the road... but in no sense would I have referred to it as a "shortcut". My respect for the quiet perfidy of this father knew no bounds, and I silently shared his secret joy at the revenge he was enacting on his child's extreme whininess WHILE APPEARING TO BE A KIND PARENT. Good times indeed!

:)

You reminded me of the time my sons and I hiked Cumberland Island and they youngest, five or six at the time, was challenged by the miles and strong headwind.  I told him he would have to tell his feet to keep moving, that his mind had mastery. I heard him muttering encouragement to his feet for the final few miles.  

A good skill for any hiker!

I hope you also muttered "Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path."

Ha!  I started that little pep talk when he was in the womb!

Excellent mother :)

Oh now I notice that you wear a strange headpiece...

Commonly called a "headband"...

I always thought it was because you're in a rock band.

Not me but I think Janill ran away to join Burning Man.  :)