1 hour 10 minutes total daily walk to school

[Itsneversimpleisit]

Is it a lot?

Twenty minutes there in the morning, twenty minutes home.
Twenty minutes there in the afternoon, twenty minutes walk back

With a 5 year old

Is it a lot or average?

Sounds pretty normal to me

We did it/do it, but there is a bus route we can use during bad weather. A scooter is helpful for dry days. Also is it 20 mins at kid walking speed, or adult?

Yes that’s reasonable. A twenty minute walk to school and home from school for a 5 year old. What are you expecting? A school within 10 minute walk of everyone’s front door?

If you think this is an excessive amount of walking I think you’ve got your answer re weight issue.

In regards to weight, I didn't lose weight but I look back at that time and realise that I never had to watch my weight. I stayed trim without making any effort.
I used to drop youngest to nursery, 5 minute walk, older two to school, 15 minutes from nursery, then walk to work which was nearer my home so 20 minutes, then pick up youngest from nursery at 12, and walk to school for pickup with pushchair at 3;30.
Then at 5 we'd walk to mosque for their madrassa classes but that was only 5 minutes each way.

It’s actually crazy to me that there are people who think 20 mins to school is too long of a walk!

@Otherstories2002 That’s nice.
I didn’t say it was excessive, I wondered if this was a normal school walk as we used to drive and I don’t see anyone else walking it.

I walk a fair bit and walk my dog an hour a day

Yes, totally manageable! It's what we do. I admit that if it's really chucking it down and windy (we live on the coast) then I drive.

DS complains about the walk sometimes before we leave, but once he's walking it's fine. So be prepared for that!

If you walk briskly on the two journeys where you're alone, it might help your fitness.

Also, walking places helps kids to orient themselves, as well as building stamina etc. There's a study out there somewhere about how kids who regularly walked places were able to draw more accurate route maps than those who tended to be driven. Thought that was interesting.

Driving is also the norm in our town but I really prefer the walk. Go for it 😊

It's normal

Why not start Couch to 5K? That way, youre killing 2 birds with 1 stone! You’d need to do the running every other day after drop off. The other days, you could stroll home leisurely, run errands, see a friend?

Sounds very normal. Only a short walk when you are on your own. You could use a scooter to speed up the child.

It's a symptom of a car-dominated society, I think. The less we walk, the more burdensome it seems.

I see barely anyone walking to school in the morning - I used to always think we were horribly late or something, but no, it's just because everyone is driving instead of walking for 10-20 mins 🤷

@Coffeerum "It’s actually crazy to me that there are people who think 20 mins to school is too long of a walk!"

I don't think anyone does, do they? All I'm saying is that you need to have contingency plans.

I'd find it unusually far for a walk to primary but we are in London so local schools would be no further than 10 mins walk (in our area the schools are sought after so most pupils live less than 5 min). Ours is 5 mins walk. I did a 20 min walk each way for nursery (dc in buggy) and it ate into the day a fair bit.

Where I am, I don’t see one person walking, so we felt a bit odd today 😂
I spent my whole childhood walking to school, never driven, never a bus

I walk further than that to work, but I’m only doing it twice a day. My children also did the walk. I’d be quite interested to know how many people on this thread actually do walk to school/work as judging by the utter traffic chaos by most schools, I’d say an awful lot of people drive.

We had 20 mins each way walk.

Work days I went straight on to work, off days, I'd encourage the use of a scooter. I loved whizzing home on that!! Made it in half the time😁

I really miss those days😩

I do that walk to school with a 5 year old - 4x for me and 2x for him. It verges on too long for him at the end of the day so he scoots and I walk pushing his little sibling in the buggy. I'd advise a scooter or bike for your 5 year old.

Unlikely unless you're very out of condition and substantially overweight. That is a fairly modest distance and probably doesn't go above low intensity. The BBC link discusses intensity levels.

Physical activity is useful for many things and a good habit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/lose_weight_get_fit

Come on, how often do kids really injure their legs that badly? Let’s not pretend this is a thing that normal people worry about. If it happens then get a taxi for the period of recovery - I managed a similar commute in a moon boot with a broken ankle.

You felt odd for walking? Good grief. Literally nobody cares how you choose to travel. Why would they?

So what’s the big deal?

also it’s not 1 hour 10 minutes.

I do a similar journey with my dcs, it’s fine.

A side effect of all the regular walking has been some weight loss and toned up legs and bum! Very pleasant.

I doubt it will make you lose weight. Weight is much more dependant on what you eat than a walk to school and back. You'd need to walk a helluva more. It's not a long walk I think but fairly average (and looking at the average school mums where I am, it doesn't have a slimming affect).