Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

..to expect my DS (2yo) to walk a mile?

54 replies

PicaK · 09/06/2011 06:13

...with mum or dad obviously (just in case anyone thinks I'm sending him off to the shops on his own!)

Background is that I live on a country road without pavements and drivers who ignore the 30mph speed limit (grrr). So I tend to leave the house either with him in the pram or in the car.

Realised I don't really have a feel for how far "most" kids can walk at this age and what we should be aiming for when we go to the park etc.

Hmm, that sounds like I've got him on some boot-camp fitness routine - but that's so not me. I guess I just want to check I'm not underestimating what he's capable of.

A mile seems too far to me.

OP posts:

Pompoko · 09/06/2011 07:52

Finding and picking up dropped postman elastic bands is a great way to distract a board child. They have to walk forward to hunt them out.

pinkthechaffinch · 09/06/2011 07:54

however

walking quickly to school is one thing

walking around the shops -there is absolutely no way i'd contemplate it without a pushchair at the moment

HSMM · 09/06/2011 07:57

Pompoko - we have a postman's elastic band ball, because we did exactly the same :)

Pompoko · 09/06/2011 08:03

they are blooming handy! They are free AND makes a small person quite!

exoticfruits · 09/06/2011 08:10

Mine could. You just have to be prepared to take a long time. The more walking you do the better -I aimed to get rid of a buggy as quickly as possible, they will want to sit in it if you have it.

gorionine · 09/06/2011 08:19

My
DCs had to walk that far from arround 2yo, I did sometime carry them on my shoulder though (When in a hurry to get the others in school) DD4 is now 4 and walks a wooping 6 miles a day every school day ( has done for a while) She walks with me in the morning to drop her siblings then back home, then she walks the same way for her nursery afternoon session and back after it. I think she is really going to enjoy strting school this September and doing only the drop in school and pick up after

WishIWasRimaHorton · 09/06/2011 08:31

my DS was really good at walking and aged 2 walked about 3 miles across bodmin moor with friends. and when out and about, he walked slowly but fairly nicely, holding hands.

my DD, however, is 2 and is a NIGHTMARE. she won't hold hands. not for anything. she screams, writhes and runs off. so she is in a buggy. shame, as she hates it. but until she starts holding my hand and NOT running off, i can't risk it. also have a little backpack thing for her with a handle i can hold, but she hates that too and ends up writhing, flinging herself on the floor if i try to use that.

girls. sigh...

maxybrown · 09/06/2011 08:34

My Mum used to play "run a lampost walk a lampost" with us to get us moving

bagpusss · 09/06/2011 09:27

DS was able to walk for ages at that age - much more than a mile. Always happy to walk. Then again, we don't have a car and we go for walks. Not all children are like this, of course. Depends also on en route distractions.
@Pompoko - the documentary was about the Human Body, the (African?) village in question had a practice of encouraging early standing and walking in babies by bouncing them up and down to encourage early development of the sense of balance.

ScroobiousPip · 09/06/2011 09:33

DS, 2.5, can walk but - like other posters DCs - gets bored and wants to be carried. But, he has a balance bike and will happily zoom to playgroup or the shops on that. He's been using it since his 2nd birthday so maybe something similar would work for your DS?

LaWeasel · 09/06/2011 09:37

It depends on lost of things, to start with some 2yos have been walking for more than a year already, some only a few months. Obviously it would be pretty daft to expect a child who has only just learnt to walk to walk a mile.

I wouldn't measure your child against what other children are doing just keep going at the pace he is happy with.

HalfTermHero · 09/06/2011 10:08

I think that a mile walk is fine for a two year old provided that you are prepared to carry them at some points along the way. My two year old enjoys walking but will ask to be picked up for a bit if she is tired. I carry her along for a couple of minutes then she wants to walk on her own again.

JjandtheBeanlovesUnicorns · 09/06/2011 10:32

we did a 3mile walk around a country park with the dcs, 2yrs 6mnths and 3yrs 11mnths and the lo was carried for maybe 10mins, we had familys older children who kept them excited, they climbed, ran, found things and loved it. No come on, or hurry up.

However,

if i was on the way to school it would take eleventy billion years.

AlaskaHQ · 09/06/2011 10:36

Mine could walk that far aged 2, and we sometimes did "two hour hikes" (generally only about 2 miles in total) with DS (now 4) aged about 2.5 - 3. Interesting woodland paths so lots to see/explore, and no nearby cars obviously. It took forever, but I think it was good for them & a fun family activity.

threadsoffeeling · 09/06/2011 10:41

kids tend to walk as much as their parents do. so if you walk four miles regularly, so will they. If you take the car every time you go half a mile away, they wont be able to walk it either

DoMeDon · 09/06/2011 10:43

Mile is fine distance wise - agree with tortoise regarding the leaf staring excruciating agony of that mile though

ragged · 09/06/2011 10:49

What Tortilla said. And Pinkchaffinch, too -- because almost all my school runs have a shop visit tagged on to them, so I can't be carrying the shopping and the child and keeping them under control and walking close to 2 miles in all weathers... would be a horrific juggle without the buggy.

DS is well over 3yo and still wants to stop and poke sticks into everything and chat about all he sees along the way. Even in the spells when he's moving at a steady rate, he still walks about half the speed I'd like to. It's totally impractical for getting anywhere in the sort of time I want to take to get places. And he's extremely not up for self-propulsion in bad weather, forget that.

I can't get even 7yo DS to walk steadily and half as fast as I'd like to.

OH, and then there's road sense, or the lack thereof. Both my 3yo & the 7yo are terrible. So much safer to have at least one in the buggy.

tortilla · 09/06/2011 11:08

It took us 35 minutes to do the half mile nursery walk this morning, even though it is downhill all the way. We had to pick up every stick we saw and decide what letter and number it looked like (strangely enough, most of them looked like I or 1 :)), then we had a sitting down strop about the fact that our poor car is in the garage (having a service) and it is very sad and we need to cry about it. And we had to count the cracks in the pavement and we had to stop every time a car went past and say 'Wow! Fast car!' and we had to watch the lawnmower in the garden 3 houses away because it is green rather than red like ours so therefore very novel and exciting and different and then we had to walk as slow as a very slow snail and then spend time having another minor strop when mummy tried to walk as fast as a cheetah but we still needed to be snails...

At times like this, I really really wish I could shove him in a buggy but at 3.2 I know that is the lazy, if less enervating, option.

hmc · 09/06/2011 11:14

I am sure he is physically capable - but that isn't the same as ameanable and willing. Would he want to? If he doesn't - are you prepared to keep battling over it until he gives in?

ragged · 09/06/2011 11:20

See, that's 50 minutes a day Tortilla wastes, by avoiding the "lazy" option.
Tag on a few more errands, and that 50 minutes can easily be doubled or tripled.

Life is too short...Give me the "lazy" option, any time!

strandedbear · 09/06/2011 11:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

PicaK · 09/06/2011 12:54

Thanks guys for all the lovely responses

Snorting laughter at eleventy billion hours

OP posts:

gorionine · 10/06/2011 08:33

"My Mum used to play "run a lampost walk a lampost" with us grin to get us moving"

ooohhhh, I am certainly going to use that one!

Suncottage · 10/06/2011 08:42

I set little 'targets' e.g. I would look for a lamp post 100 feet ahead and promise a 'treat' when we reached it. The treat was something small like a handful of raisins, or a drink of juice or a Haribo sweet but he fell for it loved the game and used to look forward to the next 'landmark' and set off again. Sometimes he would try and run to the next 'landmark'.

HTH

mousymouse · 10/06/2011 08:44

ds was able to walk that far by about 2.5y. but it did help that we got a balance bike at about the same time. made walking everywhere soooo much faster. plus he could sit down for a moment when tired. required some road training, though.
but I have to say that he walked back home from nursery (about 1km) from about 1.5y. so we slowly build up the strength.

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread