Children?

[Ann]

I am planning to walk the camino frances this spring and would like to hear from anyone else who has walked with children. I had intended to walk with my mother, but she has died. My children (ages 20, 18, 15, 11) are enthusiastic about taking her place, but I am wondering if I am crazy for even thinking about bringing them. Any thoughts/experiences?
We are a fairly hardy crew; hiking and camping are things we do often.

[Sil]

What a wonderful opportunity you have to walk el camino with your family!
Here are a few links that you can all share:
Children
Chimenti, Wayne (2006) El Camino de Santiago: Rites of Passage. is about the Chimenti family's travels on a 500-mile walking pilgrimage. It started as Nahja, their 12-year old daughter's "rite of passage". It turned out to be a test for everyone.


http://pedallingpilgrims.blogspot.com/2008/08/set-in-stone.html Pedaling with children

http://terragalice.blog4ever.com/blog/lirarticle-45469-167723.html

As with walking with any group, you might need to agree on a few ground rules before you go. This is advice we (CSJ of SA) give to local pilgrims:
The old adage ?two is company, three is a crowd? can be very true when walking the camino. Spending 30 days or more together on holiday in a foreign country can be trying for even the closest of friends but when you engage in something as strenuous as the camino with a group of people, tiredness, injuries or just not enjoying the experience can lead to friction, dissatisfaction and arguments.
Some members of the group might need time alone and will resent having to stay with others day in and day out.

Before you go, agree on what kind of accommodation you will stay in and what you will budget for meals. Do you all want to stay in the smart, up-market, comfortable albergues and eat out every night or do you want to try out the small, basic refuges where communal cook-ups and sing-a-longs are tradition?
If you are planning to walk with a group there are a few things you can do to minimize the dependence on each other and to ensure the camaraderie is retained.
Ensure that each group member is involved in the planning, the organization and the daily routine of the walk. Don?t let anyone say, ?Just tell me where to go and I?ll follow you.? Unless you want to be a tour guide, this is not acceptable.
Make copies of your guide book or maps and share them equally otherwise one person will be left carrying the load and everyone will come to depend on that person for guidance.
With three, four or more people walking together with different fitness levels and different ideas on when to start each day, how far to walk, how fast or slow, it will be difficult to satisfy everybody?s aspirations. Before you go, come to some agreement about the distance you will be walking each day. Bear in mind that there will be slow walkers, fast walkers and speed walkers. You can?t expect people to change their pace to suit each person in the group. You should agree that if one wants to walk ahead they can and if another wants to dawdle along, she won?t mind always being at the back, as long as you all meet up at the same place at the end.
Bear in mind that refuges work on a first come first served basis and they can fill up quickly. If two or three arrive first they might get a bed but the rest of the group might not. What will you do in a case like this? Some pilgrim refuges only have 20 beds (or less) and these do not accept groups. You might have to find alternate accommodation in hotels or inns. Is everyone prepared for the extra expense of staying in hotels?
Agree before hand on what to do if one person is injured or falls ill. Is it going to be one-for-all and all-for-one or do you agree that the injured person catches a bus ahead and waits for everyone else to catch up ? or even goes home alone. Ditto if someone is ill: let them go ahead a couple of days and meet up with the group later at a pre-arranged village or town; or will everybody stay together and have a rest day until the ill person is feeling better?
Now this might sound a bit like girl guides but with a large group it will help to plan on having a new group leader ? or Mother ? each day so that you don?t have one bossy boots doing all the organizing and leading! The role of the Mother is to ensure that everyone is up on time, that they have all their belongings (to check on walking poles, hats etc) and that everyone is clear on where they are heading that day. The Mother is the ?sweeper? and should stay at the back, walking with the slowest person all day and making sure no-one is left behind. The following day, she can be in the front and the new Mother goes to the back. If you have 10 people in your group and are walking for 30 days, each person will be Mother only 3 times so it?s not a hardship.
Have a group meeting each evening (over dinner is good) to share experiences and discuss plans for the following day. Perhaps you are planning a shorter day and can all get up half an hour later, or a longer day and need to be up earlier. If you have predetermined wake-up times you won?t have to resent the lazy-bones who sleeps in late and keeps everyone waiting.
Agree to take it in turns to go shopping for provisions for the evening meal. Many refuges have kitchens and it will be a fraction of the cost if you buy pasta or rice, vegetables and salad ingredients and make your own meals.
With a bit of preparation and planning walking with a group can be a wonderful experience but be prepared for the odd break away.

Good luck!

[Covey]

The post from Sil contains excellent advice.

Last year I came across a young lady from London who had planned on walking with her friend who worked in the same office as her. Her friend had abandoned her on Day 3 just before Pamplona as she had bad blisters and could not keep up, and her friend wanted to go on with a group of young guys they had met. Not much fun being abandoned (not quite in the middle of nowhere, but almost!), injured, in Spain and still a Camino newby.

Quite often you see children walking with parents, but the kids are either babies, or 10+. Over 10 they can carry some of the kit they need and on the Camino Frances there are lots of albergues so it is easy to vary the daily distance to suit what everyone wants to manage in a day.

The vast majority of pilgrims are walking solo so it is easy to just look after oneself, but those walking as a family seem to have great fun and one assumes that the kids are there because they want to be. The Camino is not the place for unwilling walkers!!

The majority of those walking the Camino tend to walk with someone they have met along the way and who share the same pace and language. Walking in a group of more than four is tedious.