Both Hands on the Car.

Streets and parking lots can be dangerous places for small children.  Drivers can't see people as short as the average two-year-old, especially not drivers of SUV's and other trucks.  Ideally, you should hold a toddler's hand until he or she is safe in your car.  Unfortunately, that's not possible if your hands are full of the toddler's younger sibling.  Unless your toddler can climb into the car and wait for you to strap the baby safely into a car seat, you need to make sure the toddler is safe and out of harm's way.  You can tell them to stay nearby, but it's not very clear, and they may still want to run off.  If you phrase it in negative terms and tell your two-year-old not to run off, that might be just what it take to plant the idea in that little head of running off, and then you have a conflict on your hands.  It's better to give them clear, positive directions, like "keep one hand on the car," but that's still not the safest distance.  What I taught my toddlers to do was to stand so close to the car that they were touching it with both hands.  That way, they were too busy making sure that neither hand left the car to stray.  Another driver could not hit the child without hitting me and the car itself.