How old was your child when

[Coffeemonster1]

They were able to walk while not getting distracted by everything behind them and look where they were going?
Our lg has just turned 2 and loves to walk (we still take pushchair as she often gets tired after a day out) but she goes so SLOOOOOWWWW. She looks behind her at things she notices and dosent look where she is going. Wants to pick up every stone/ leaf/ ant on the way.
She likes to hold the pushchair but we have a 3 wheeler with wide back wheels so she ends up tripping over the wheel over and over but still wants to hold on. If she holds your hands she stops walking properly and you have to almost hold her weight up and drag lol to keep her moving.
But doesn't want to sit in the pushchair. Any tips?

I stopped taking the pushchair on short trips and just used reins. It isn't a long phase.....I remember getting irritated about the slowness but then realised that I should accept it....and take my time too. Bit tough at first! If I wanted to get somewhere in a hurry or it was a longer trip, I used to make her sit in the pushchair.

reigns I mean!

We're in exactly the same place including the tripping over the buggy wheels! I use reigns when short walks/ when we have time to explore every stone and get excited about every leaf or I tell her we are in a hurry and I carry her / she goes in the buggy. She is pretty good once I strap her in and she has vocalised her indignation!!

Sometimes I turn things into a race/game and get DD to find a red car or a postbox, if we're on a road I know is safe for her to be a little bit in front of me.

Occasionally if she's being completely and utterly distracted by everything then we do have a little conversation about whether she wants to get back in the pushchair - that tends to work quite well

For me it's a bit of a 'pick your battles' one. If there's no rush then you just have to take a deep breath and let them explore. If you do need to be somewhere more quickly then I explain that to her and ask her to walk a little better, with lots of ridiculously over the top praise for walking nicely holding my hand. It works most of the time, though not all. But I get the impression that because she doesn't have to walk sensibly most of the time, she's a little more willing to do it occasionally.

But toddlers are just one of life wanderers. Sigh. It takes me 10 minutes to cover what should be a 3 minute walk in the morning...

It can take me 20mins to walk the 5mins to the local park (not an exaggeration!) because my LO wants to pick up aaaaall the sticks and stones and watch EVERY car that goes by and get excited about its colour etc. We walk through the local churchyard on the way and so he's allowed to walk alone there as there are no cars. Because he can explore freely here he's more willing to walk sensibly and hold hands properly for the rest of the walk.

As silly as it sounds I sometimes forget that his legs are only short so even when he walks without being distracted it can take much longer than if he was in the pushchair.

But toddlers are day dreamers and they spot far more than we would (partly just because they're closer to the ground!) so if you're not in a rush take the time to investigate things with her because they won't be this easily entertained for much longer!

2.5 yo DD still trips (my feet, too close to pushchair)
Walked into food bin of veg in coop today while looking at another child.
Still needs pushchair as though walks as quick as me gets tired if i walk too far or if around nap time

Wow it's clearly quite common at this age then!! I always allow extra time and I don't mind the interest in things as long as she still moves in the right direction. But she doesn't and I end up putting the brakes on the pushchair and walking back to get her to move. Do you think one of those straps with handles that fix to the pushchair might be an idea? She likes holding on but trips over the wheels. She still needs the pushchair too as we go away as often as we can do our caravan where we walk lots and it's too far to expect her to walk all the way.

Errrrm 7 and counting :-/ the strap things are pretty good if you have a dc who likes to hold the pushchair. We now have school run rules and "other" rules when it comes to faffing about, stopping, picking things up etc. Also 2y9m old dd2 unfortunately doesn't have totally free choice when she goes in the buggy or doesn't.

7 oh no, I might have to get used to it !! Yeah she does like holding on but I just spend more time picking her up off the floor then actually walking anywhere. We don't have any school runs etc to do so aren't usually in much of a rush, so can let her walk as much as she likes or as much as my patients can take it

"reigns I mean!"

No you don't -you mean reins!

OP- if it's any consolation, my teenagers now get cross with me because I like to dawdle and look at things and point things out to them............

We have the straps on the stroller with handles and they're really good. We have one on each side and DS1,(4) uses then too sometimes as well as DD (2) in situations where I want all 3 DC close and moving at the same rate.