'We went for a long walk' ... how far is this with your family?

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Obviously ages of DC can determine how far is far. But if your DC are 8+ how far is your long walk?

We usually walk at least ten miles on a saturday..... Takes around 3 hours and includes countryside and beach with a trip to aldi on the way home for Saturday snacks. We don't own a car tho so very normal for the dc.

10km and how they’d moan. They are runners though and wouldn’t think twice about doing a fast 5k.

2 hrs/ about 8 miles with 10yr old and 14 yr old
14 yr old is a good Walker and will do more. 10yr old will start to main about the 2hr mark.

We did our usual walk today which is about 3 miles and took about an hour so I would say 5/6 miles/2 hours would be a long walk. Youngest just turned 5, oldest is 10.

We got the then 7 & 9 yos up to 8 miles last summer. At that point, their stamina was wearing off by the last mile even though it's largely down hill. At that point refuelling didn't make much difference and it seems to be their natural limit.

We can now get them 5-6 miles without much complaint... well special complaint... DS1 is an accomplished complainer and he seems to mosn about everything other than the diodes down his left hand side...

So I'd say 6mi/ 10k +

DS2 impressed me recently, we'd driven to a beauty spot recently and he had a good run around and asked to go after school this week, so we did, and he was full of it and did 2 laps running/ walking quite a tough trail covering 5 miles. He was actually tired for once!

Tales of long-walking toddlers make me smile. DS1 turned every walk into a long walk. The 30 minute walk 300m home from the Children's Centre was a memorable highlight, with a full lie-down screaming meltdown every 100m. I was too pregnant to use the pushchair or carry him and by the time I'd done the car seat wrestling, and walked him 100m from the car parking, it wasn't substantially more practical anyway. Oh the memories!

Our long walks are about 2 hours whatever age the children are but obviously we get further now they're older! We go for short walks of around 45 mins with dogs, if we pack water and snacks it's for a long walk.

We have occasionally gone for longer with a picnic in the middle but two hours and they've normally had enough.

But distance, at the moment around 5 miles in that time (children 5 and 7).

When my kids were 8 and 6 you could do a 4-5 mile walk with a little bit of moaning but we would stop for sit downs maybe some food we would sing songs and play games. It could be tedious with having to keep them constantly entertained but they rarely moaned. I remember thinking about the day when they would be teenagers and we could walk without having to try and keep them entertained as we walked. However at 14 and 12., 20 mins is the limit and they moan constantly!!!!!

A long walk is up the hill at the back of the house. Two hours up and down. Two days for my thighs to recover!

A long walk for us is over an hour on gravel tracks up and down hills at a brisk pace set by the dogs. Maybe 4mph? We are all knackered afterwards.

@ShirleyPhallus yes, why would I need a water bottle (or ds) for a couple of hours walking? Obv if it was very hot it would be different, but at the moment no one is dropping from dehydration. Also different if it was somewhere a long way from resources (up on the hills, moors etc) when I'd have more on me than a walk where (as the crow flies) we are never more than 2 miles from home though in the woods, fields etc

Depends on time of day & if hungry/tired etc..also the company...if friends/cousins involved then happier for longer...roughly 2 hrs or so at leisurely pace in forest or by lakeside with lots to see. Nothing near as long if on footpaths in urban area or public parks..

Our normal walk is about 4-5 miles, which with the children takes about 1.5 hours (aged 6 and 10). Any longer than this and we would probably include a break and a snack, after which they could do a few more miles. However we never actually measure the distance!

@RedlightGreenlight

Obviously ages of DC can determine how far is far. But if your DC are 8+ how far is your long walk?

7-8 miles

My kids find walking for the sake of it dull and moan after about 3 miles but if it’s for a purpose- shopping, theme park, Expedition with friends they’ll go for miles. If it’s just a walk anything over 3 or 4 miles is ‘long’ as the whingeing makes it appear much longer!

8 and 5 here. Did 11 miles a couple of weeks ago. Average is about 6-8 miles.

But, we live in a national park and it's something we've always done as a family, long before Covid was a thing.

10-15 km. But we live in a beautiful forest and our everyday walk with the dogs is 4 km or so, so we would only consider it a long walk if we were really going much further.

1.5-2.25 hours is pretty bog standard for us.

Long would be... I dunno? At least 3 hours maybe.

Depends on the kid. Middle DS could walk 10 miles/day routinely at 9 yrs old. Other DC -- no chance*. Would have been horrible to try to get them to walk so far. 6 miles max.

*Except the one time when DC were 9, 7 & 5... they walked 12 miles with a cafe stop in the middle. I still don't know why that worked fine!

3-4 hours.

Ds is 9 and I say a long walk with him is 8-10miles. Unfortunately big age gap means we'll hit a point soon where 2-3 might be a limit for while as dd is getting too big to be carried . Ds will probably be delighted though

Last summer we would walk about 8 miles with 7 (almost 8) DD and newborn in the sling.

With company probably 2-3 hours. DC are 10 & 11. Youngest moans her legs hurt after about 10 minutes if it's just us, which makes it awful.

I was exactly the same as a kid, but went on to do my Duke of Edinburgh awards as a teen and loved it, so I know she'll get over it eventually.

Longest we've done is 7m years ago.

A quick walk is 2-3 miles, a longer one 4-7. That's about the max we get out of them. We were out just over 2 hours today on a 7 mile one including a stop to build a quick den and a bakery visit.

We did a long walk other day. We started at 1030 and got back at 520. 10 miles altogether and 2 hours playing in the lake. My kids are 6 and 11 friends kids are 7 and 10

@Christmasfairy2020

We did a long walk other day. We started at 1030 and got back at 520. 10 miles altogether and 2 hours playing in the lake. My kids are 6 and 11 friends kids are 7 and 10

That's amazing. Really impressed with your 6 yo managing 10 miles as well as the 2 hours playing at the lake.