Walking with a child

[cushlala]

Hi everyone,

I am walking the Camino from SJPdP in September with my 10 year old son. Looking for any tips and tricks from others that may have had this experience with children of similar ages.

Thank you

 

[C clearly]

Welcome to the forum!

The tag "children" has been added to to the top of this thread under the title. If you click on it, you will find other threads that have been so tagged.

 

[Kanga]

@Kiwi-family (Rachael) is always my go-to source of information about walking with children. You can see some of her photos of her and family on the Camino in her blog here.

 

[beclark1972]

Have fun! I walked with my 15 year old daughter and saw lots of folks with kids between 8-12. Best advice I got was just take it easy and let them help set the pace. Take time to stop at playgrounds or other places they notice. Our three weeks were amazing.

 

[cushlala]

Thank you for your encouragement.

 

[RENSHAW]

I would say distance each day would be a factor. Most albergues will afford you special treatment. please bear in mind that he is a very young person.

 

[howardd5]

Hi everyone,

I am walking the Camino from SJPdP in September with my 10 year old son. Looking for any tips and tricks from others that may have had this experience with children of similar ages.

Thank you

Don’t do it , it’s too stressful and can be dangerous. I have seen more than a couple really bad situations

 

[Kanga]

Don’t do it , it’s too stressful and can be dangerous. I have seen more than a couple really bad situations

@cushlala

We have had many members of the forum talking their children and it has worked out splendidly. I can't think of any who have reported negatively.

From reading many of the threads about children, and having grandchildren this age, I'd say that an important aspect will be to give your son a chance to play with the local children. I'd arrange things so that the kilometres each day were not too long, and so that we could join the gatherings in the local playground or plaza in the early evening when all the kids seem to be about.

I'm sure that your son will become a favourite with all the older people (like me) and probably be given far too many ice-creams!

 

[RENSHAW]

Don’t do it , it’s too stressful and can be dangerous. I have seen more than a couple really bad situations

No , go ahead with the child , 10 years old is not a baby. Pilgrims will make allowances for you but reduce your distance.

 

[cushlala]

@cushlala

We have had many members of the forum talking their children and it has worked out splendidly. I can't think of any who have reported negatively.

From reading many of the threads about children, and having grandchildren this age, I'd say that an important aspect will be to give your son a chance to play with the local children. I'd arrange things so that the kilometres each day were not too long, and so that we could join the gatherings in the local playground or plaza in the early evening when all the kids seem to be about.

I'm sure that your son will become a favourite with all the older people (like me) and probably be given far too many ice-creams

Thanks. I really like what you said about making sure he has time to play with other kids, I'll definitely factor that in. We have plenty of time so we don't have to rush. He will surely win some hearts, he is a lovely child

 

[David Tallan]

Don’t do it , it’s too stressful and can be dangerous. I have seen more than a couple really bad situations

I know a number of really successful Caminos with kids. Travel with kids has its dangers, to be sure. Staying at home with kids is not without dangers. Kids get into bad situations both at home and on the road. I'd say that there are definitely advantages of travelling with kids on Camino over other types of Camino, as you will be in a very supportive community.
I would counterpoint howardd5's suggestion by saying "You know your kids. You know your family dynamic. You know what is best for your family. I hope you find more constructive advice."

When I was walking with my 16 year old son, there was another family walking with a 5 and 7 year old. They walked the same distance we did each day, but the kids backpacks were a lot smaller and the parents carried extra. If you go on YouTube and search for "WorldTowning", they walked with a daughter (12) and a son (10) and vlogged every day. "GettingLost onthetrail" walked with three kids and vlogged theirs, as well. They also made a one hour movie of their compete Camino. Watching the Caminos of others with kids might give you some ideas.

 

[HeidiL]

My husband and I walked 405 km with out 8-year-old the first time. (This year, we're walking with the same kid, at 26. In the meantime, we have walked a few thousand kilometers with him.)

The first three days, he claimed to be suffering horribly. And for the next 16 days, he was running ahead of us, in charge of getting sellos and ordering zumo natural.

 

[Leanne Lang]

I walked 500kms of the Norte last year with my 10 year old daughter and 12 year old son. It changed us forever in incredible, beautiful ways.

We started our Camino walking shorter daily distances to enjoy time in the seaside towns, and to find a comfortable rhythm, which was great, but my daughter became really attached to friends we made along the way and it was hard to be left behind. In the last week we walked adult distances and we all loved this.

My son seemed to find the walking effortless, and my daughter also, though she struggled more with boredom and we needed a lot of conversation and word games to keep her going.

We agreed beforehand that loving each other was top priority, and on some of the scorching hot days (we walked in July), we caught a taxi when it became too hot for them to walk. We needed to book some accommodation because places to stay aren't as plentiful as on the Frances.

The training walks we did beforehand were so helpful, to understand what kind of pace we might make, how we like to take breaks and to test drive our gear.

Both kids would say that their biggest challenge was the loneliness they felt, missing their friends in Australia and not having many people to talk to. Next time I plan to walk the Frances, the increase in pilgrims will mean more opportunity for my kids to make friends. A lot of people we met were curious about them, but not so inclined to want to talk to them. That said, both my kids are more confident talking to adults now, my son was quite shy but now I can see him choosing to step out of that.

I hope you have an incredible journey, I'm hoping to walk from SJPdP in September myself, so who knows, we might meet you, my kids would love that!

Leanne

 

[cushlala]

I walked 500kms of the Norte last year with my 10 year old daughter and 12 year old son. It changed us forever in incredible, beautiful ways.

We started our Camino walking shorter daily distances to enjoy time in the seaside towns, and to find a comfortable rhythm, which was great, but my daughter became really attached to friends we made along the way and it was hard to be left behind. In the last week we walked adult distances and we all loved this.

My son seemed to find the walking effortless, and my daughter also, though she struggled more with boredom and we needed a lot of conversation and word games to keep her going.

We agreed beforehand that loving each other was top priority, and on some of the scorching hot days (we walked in July), we caught a taxi when it became too hot for them to walk. We needed to book some accommodation because places to stay aren't as plentiful as on the Frances.

The training walks we did beforehand were so helpful, to understand what kind of pace we might make, how we like to take breaks and to test drive our gear.

Both kids would say that their biggest challenge was the loneliness they felt, missing their friends in Australia and not having many people to talk to. Next time I plan to walk the Frances, the increase in pilgrims will mean more opportunity for my kids to make friends. A lot of people we met were curious about them, but not so inclined to want to talk to them. That said, both my kids are more confident talking to adults now, my son was quite shy but now I can see him choosing to step out of that.

I hope you have an incredible journey, I'm hoping to walk from SJPdP in September myself, so who knows, we might meet you, my kids would love that!

Leanne

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, it’s very encouraging. I dare say my sons challenges will be similar as he is already saying he will miss his friends. He also requires lots of conversation so hopefully people will want to talk to him otherwise I’m in trouble 🤣.

Yes let’s hope our paths cross.

Cushla

 

[HeidiL]

Camino Francés is really where my son learned to speak English - a lot of people wanted to walk with him. We walked pretty slowly, so it was easy for most people to leave us behind. When they didn't, we knew it was because they liked talking to him. A few people also said they missed their kids, and that that was why they liked talking to him.