Is this appropriate for a five year old

[Greypaw]

My ex has our children (8 and 5) over two weekends a month, and as they are a very active family they are often out and about on sponsored bike rides etc.

The other weekend they all went on a 10 mile sponsored walk, which the school mentioned they thought was excessive for my youngest who has just turned 5. I know they have also taken him on 10 mile bike rides before, and my ex said my youngest (then 4) complained about it, but "had to get on with it".

I'm not sure if he's being pushed too far too soon. Anyone got any thoughts?

Gosh that's a lot for a 5 year old! Not sure how far you'd get if you argued that to your ex though, unless you could get an expert view from somewhere? I guess it also depends how physically developed the child is...they can vary a lot at that age!

I think it sounds great. Presumably your 5yo is fit and active and is used to this kind of thing. I did 10 mile bike rides with my 5yo (now 6) although we have probably never walked that far with her.

We did parts of the west highland way with a 5 year old and they were around the 10 mile mark. Mind you, it was a lovely saunter with picnic stops and tbe odd years room...

It depends on the pace I guess.

My DS walked the Thames path when he was 7 but we walked very slowly and rested a lot. In pubs! It's 184 miles and we spread it over 14 days.

Sounds fine to me my children did similar at that age and still do

Mine couldn't do that but why not ask the school?

My ds1 (Almost 5) and my husband went on a 4 hour hike last weekend in the mountains, which was a lot for him and we were astonished he wanted to do it. He was tired at the end but not overwrought. I'd say anything that's more than 5 hours of walking for a five year old in one day is pretty full on! I think they could do 10 miles in 5 hours at a nice slow pace for the kid..? But down to willingness of child IMHO -- if they see it as fun then it's amazing what they can do. The next day we had a meltdown on the 5 min walk to school...

It sounds fine. It depends what they are used to - people are always surprised how far DS can walk or cycle, but he's used to it because we didn't have a car for ages so it was how we got around. IME a young child who is being pushed too far will make it VERY clear to others, not just a bit of complaining but being totally unable to carry on.

This has been very reassuring, thank you all. He normally walks or cycles around two miles a day so he's not exactly used to 10 miles but perhaps that it's not entirely excessive. I'll keep an eye on it :)

That sounds quite nice I think as long as he is being respected if it does get too much. I'd rather mine did that than just got stuck in front of the TV which is what my DH (possible STBX) does when he has sole care!

As others have said, I think that's great! My DS cycled 10 miles for first time when he was 5, we were v proud of him at the time! A 10 mile walk is pretty long for that age though, I remember doing a walk of about that distance once with DS at 4, which had the added disadvantage of being down hill all the way to start with (walking across headland and down to the sea) and uphill on the way back when already tired, I was a bit nervous that DS would go into a sit down protest or insist on being carried but he walked happily all the way as the pace was slow allowing him plenty of time to fiddle around and look at things (and there were crisps involved at a couple of points along the route which definitely helped!!)

Sounds fine, my 7 and 4 year olds would walk and cycle those distances.