Brica By-My-Side Safety Harness Backpack

One of our goals is to visit as many National Parks as we can over our lifetime, so every year we try to make it a point to visit one and do some sightseeing and/or mountain hiking. As a couple, we have been visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for years and have recently started branching out to others. Last year we visited Acadia National Park in Maine, and the year before we spent time in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The last two National Park visits included our first son who spent most of his time in carriers on dads back. Since our son is getting older at just shy of 3 years old, we really enjoy watching him explore new places on his own, so when planning our trip this year, we though that some of the easier hikes would be great for him to be on foot and for dad to get a break.

Being a mother, I of course only imagine my child flying off the side of a mountain--even on flat ground. I told my husband that I wanted to find a backpack that would allow us to keep track of him and close by with some sort of strap. Bring in the Brica By-My-Side Safety Harness Backpack. The backpack comes in two color choices, pink & grey or green & blue. We chose the green & blue for our son, and the price was only $9.89 on amazon, the pink runs about $1 more. The parent strap is optional and attaches to the bottom of the backpack with a swivel clip. This seemed like a great option for us as the trails we plan to let him explore on will not be very difficult, but we can still keep him close by if he were to trip or fall.

This backpack is the perfect size for our 2.5 year old son and the straps still have a little give left. It goes on like a normal backpack, but it has a buckle that goes across the child's chest to keep the pack from slipping off. When we first got the pack in the mail, my son put it on and wouldn't take it off, he loved having his own backpack that was his size.

We tried out the backpack last weekend when we took a day trip to Disney just to see how it would go. I would say it went about as expected with letting a 2.5 year old "loose" at Disney! As the amazon reviews state, it will take some learning and getting used to. Right now he is in that stage where he completely does not pay attention to where he is walking and is constantly turning around or looking elsewhere. With the harness though, we can at least pull him in and keep him from meeting the legs (or crotches) of too many strangers. He liked to test the boundaries with us to see just how much we'd put up with so that was fun.

On the trails, he will be able to carry his own water and snacks which will give him a sense of independence...what toddler doesn't want to be independent?! My only reserve about the bag is the placement of the hook for the parent strap. Being that it is located at the bottom of the bag, the bag slides on his back if pulled so it isn't very taut like we would like, with time though I think we will both become accustomed to it.

We're definitely looking forward to trying it out on our trip, and I will be sure to include a short review of its use once we do. :-)