How far / for how long would you expect a 3yo to be able to walk?

[JimmyMcNulty]

As title! Ds1 is 3.3.

DS has just turned 3 - he can walk about 1/2 mile before needing a rest. He can go further on occasion but I couldn't rely on it.

my 2.8 yo is a lazy swine delicate flower and will do about a mile walk under extreme protest.

Mine is 3.1 and has been walking since 10 months of age.

He is unstoppable. He will walk for miles with an occasional ride on shoulders. I know of others who still go in pushchair for a five minute walk (disclaimer: not knocking pushchair use at all)

Today we went out at 1pm to walk to the swings about 3/4 mile away, then we walked a long way back (about 1.5 - 2 miles) as an example.

He doesn't sleep though (bed 8.30, up at 6 kind of guy, and wakes in night)
Are you getting grief from someone? I think children vary so much in all ways.

Completely depends on the individual child.

My 3yr-old dd will happily walk for miles without complaining too much.

My ds at that same age used to tire very easily. He was doing well if he walked for more than 10 minutes.

DD walks well - she does about 3m a day on school runs no problem (2 x 1.5m). I take the buggy board just in case but rarely use it. She is 3.6, but has been doing this since before she turned 3.

I heard once that you could expect a child to walk for roughly a mile for every year of their age, that seems to be the case for mine, so I'd expect a 3 year old to manage up to 3 miles, with a bit of encouragement. my 3 could all do this.

Also depends on the walk. Ds2 was 3 in August. He can walk a long way, especially if there's a group of us out in the countryside, for example.

However, I absolutely can not rely on him to walk to a particular place for a particular time - or even in a particular direction if he doesn't feel like it. If I'm feeling even slightly impatient I'll take the pushchair to save screaming in public (me, not him).

My 3 and a half year old has walked just under 5 miles on a nature hunt. He hasn't used a buggy for a long time and I reckon he does a couple of miles a day on average

dd at 3 could walk miles as there was an 18 month gap between her and ds1 and i had no double buggy and couldn't drive.

ds1 is 3 now and is a whiney walker, he whinges every step of the way so 1/2 mile is the limit before we're ready to kill each other

Thanks for the responses. I think purpleturtle's ds is on the same wavelength as mine. He can run quite happily in the woods for a good 20 minutes but when I try to get him to walk anywhere he goes incredibly slowly and wants to go in the buggy after about 10 mins (a P&T which ds2 is in and I take the 2nd seat with me). I suspect it's down to how interesting the walk is, and I know I should probably insist we keep walking, but I lose the will to live after a while. No one's giving me grief lankyalto (except ds1).

My DS is 2 today and he can walk quite far to the park, wander about there and then walk back, maybe about a mile in total? We went for a 2 hour walk yesterday but that was at DS pace ie, VERRRRRRRRRY slowly. He has to stop and look at leaves and check the locks on gates etc. Cute but it takes forever to get anywhere. Today we went to the zoo for his birthday and he walked up and down very steep hills pushing his toy pram for 3 hours!

Am ROFL at 1 mile per year! DD1 barely able to stagger next door at 2 yrs, now at 3.4 will not walk to playground (1/2 mile) and will walk at mall for 10 mins or less and only if destination is the very nice play area. (am in US)

DD2 is 15months and not walking at all. Do not expect her to do anything like 3 miles at 3, or at 6 for that matter. Have caved and bought P&T for impending move to London.

Delicate flowers, both of them will be one of those mums with a 6yo in the pushchair!

3.6 and will walk for hours and miles if he is enjoying it. I think 5 miles in 4.5 hours is a longest single "walk" we have done , but routine to do a mile or so each way to toddlers etc.
Pushchair went months ago. its bike or walk only. He is one of those boys who needs a good bit of "exercise" most days to stop him bouncing off the walls.

DD1 3.1 will walk for miles, she hasn't sat in a pushchair since she was about about 2.4 as I had been using a double for her and DD2 I but hated it and sold it as soon as she was walking well.

I find distances quite hard to compute - would love to know from other posters how long their kids take to go those distances?

I have a feeling DS could walk more than he does (3.5) but it's hard to tell.

No car so a lot of walking in our household. Daughters could manage half to three quarters of a mile or so at a reasonable pace.

For longer distances, or to get anywhere in a hurry, resort to a buggy. By four they should be able to keep up on most routine trips.

Ds was barely out of his buggy till he was 3.5. Pushing a wee buggy helped but he wouldn't go far.

Dd is 3.1 and will walk for well over a mile at a reasonable speed but she's been able to scoot at speed for months which helps a lot.

Time taken... with his balance bike ( age 2.6-3.3) he was moving at my fast walking speed (4mph) on outward journey and slowly (2mph) on homebound uphill .
Now (age 3.7) its a proper bike and he goes about 10 mph or walks up hill at about 2mph. Walking hes at at about 3 mph on short trips, slowing down on longer/ steeper walks to 2mph or a complete standstill if he throws a paddy.

My 2.9yo can do a good hour to hour and a half's walk with the dog. That is going at his speed so I don;t know how far we actually cover as we tend to meander through the forest but he can walk contiuously for that time.

DS1 at exactly 3yo could do the mile walk to preschool in under half an hour. I had dd and ds2 in the double buggy so he had no choice but he was pretty good at walking at a decent speed.

I think if you don't have an option for them to ride then they very quickly get used to walking a decent distance at a reasonable(ish) speed.

That said, I still take the buggy on the school run because my blood pressure can't take the constant stopping to inspect leaves/bugs/stones/dog poo when I'm already running late.

My now 3.8yr old walked about 4 miles on Christmas day last year when he was 2.10yrs which I admit was way better than average at the time when mostly he was managing a couple of miles so I would agree with the mile a year comment an earlier poster made.

We went on a walking holiday to Chamonix this summer and on his best days he managed 3-4 hours walking, probably say 5-7k with possibly 500m or so of descent (ascent was another matter!). We did get a lot of shocked looks though for taking him along the rocky mountain paths but those were the ones he loved, the forest tracks were the ones where the major whinging started. It is slow though, pretty much double the time suggested on those walking signs in the Alps but we love walking holidays and we figure the sooner we get him started (and his little brother who was carried along in a backpack) the sooner we'll get back to being out in the hills which we love.