For those of you who ski?

[hbridge]

We just came back from a ski vacation. Our DC have always skied with us. It works well and we love being together as a family. DH and I will occasionally make a run on our own, but generally we stay together. The first year for each child is a little tough as they learn to ski, but it's fun and there's always ways to enjoy the mountain on any level of terrain.

HOWEVER, we just spent many days on a very large mountain and there were few families skiing together. I talked to many parents whose children were in ski school; they met back at the lodge at the end of the day. These were parents of early elementary children. One mother actaully said that skiing was "such a great family vacation"?!?!

So what do most of you do? Ski with your kids (and muddle through that initial learing stage) or send them to ski school? We asked DC if they wanted to try ski school and they weren't interested, "too much fun skiing with Daddy"!

[SASM]

We do what you do. My 3 DC are enrolled in lessons for an hour but, other than that, it's family time. Maybe when they are much older we'll give them some wiggle room but right now it's a family activity that gets us through the winter with no one arguing,etc...I don't want to miss that! Good luck and have fun! :)

[lfp2n]

I think it depends on how well you ski. We usually go to a crowded mountain in WV and I wanted DD to be safe and ski well, and DH and I, although competent skiers are not good enough to teach her especially when she was young. So our compromise was half day ski school in the morning and then we all ski together in the afternoon. This was an issue between 4-6 but now she can ski pretty well so its not a problem. For what its worth, when we went to Jackson Hole, I hated leaving her in ski school as she cried and it ruined my day, but they were fabulous instructors and taught her to ski so well and she enjoyed it as soon as I was out of sight, I know that we could never have done that. If we just go locally for a day we just ski together.

[hannah]

We ski every weekend. The kids are in ski school because they are young and new to skiing (well, DD is in her 3 year of lessons). DD is 6 and DS is 4. This is DS first year of lessons (they have 6 lessons in a row). I ski with another mom friend and DH skis with friend's hubby. The lessons are from 9:15 to 2:30. Right now this works for us because we prefer that someone else teach our kids how to ski. When they get older they will for sure ski with us but right now we prefer that they are in lessons learning what they need to know. Now in March when we take a vacation with another family they will also be in ski school too. But as I said as they get older they will ski more with us (probably with me since I ski blues and greens and DH prefers blacks). After lessons are done for the day we do extra runs with the kids.

[bubbaray]

We ski as a family, but only because DH is a ski instructor and teaches our girls. If he wasn't a certified instructor, the girls would be in ski school. However, in terms of learning, there isn't much point right now because they are basically getting free private lessons from DH.

We definitely will be putting them in ski school eventually, if for no other reason than just so they have some fun.

FWIW, DH is very opposed to non-instructors "teaching" children how to ski.

[hbridge]

Interesting perspective. I guess since DH is an expert skier with some teaching experience I just don't think too much about it. My biggest thing was that every family we talked to said what a great "family vacation" they were having, yet none spent the day with their children.

Also, I've watched many ski lessons and one instructor with 6 to 8 young children on a huge busy mountain terrifies me. We did observe a fantastic instructor with three students, but that didn't seem to be the norm for the large resort that we were at. I guess I don't understand how the instructors can keep track of that many kids and get them safely on and off the lifts. DC has been skiing for awhile and seems fine on the lifts, but still FORGOT to get off once. I would love for our kids to experience skiing with new friends and an instructor, but have too many concerns that don't seem to plague other families.

Of course we have a family friend that works on the mountain who told us how great the ski school is and how a boy fell and was seperated from his group and ski patrol had no problem getting him back to his instructor. He thought this was such a great thing and I'm back at "SEPERATED FROM GROUP!" Okay, maybe I'M not for ski school :)

[catmele]

My husband is an expert skier... I am not. I do mostly greens & some blue. We have a 7 yr old & 4 yr old. The 7 yr old skies with my husband & the 4 yr is mostly in ski school as this is his first yr skiing. I am not comfortable taking the 4 yr old out & my 7 yr old does not like to ski with me as I am too slow:) This is the first yr we have one of the kids in all day ski school & it is a little weird for me when the 4 yr old is not with us at lunch but it is working because if he saw us he would not want to go back into lessons. Ski school is very expensive so this is probably the last yr we do it this way. Eventually hopefully we can all ski togethe but I will need some lessons also:)

[cono0507]

We ski about every other weekend. We seem to have the kids in ski school about 50% of the time. Neither DH nor I are expert skiers and we needed the fundamentals to be taught by instructors. My 5 year old can now ride the lift and ski the greens with us. My 3 yr old doesn't quite have it down at all and still doesn't want to stop when she should and just sits down regularly so we have her on a harness but it makes for very slow and frustrating runs. I think in a year or two we can ski the greens as a family and have a blast!

[mom2binsd]

We ski as a family, but only because DH is a ski instructor and teaches our girls. If he wasn't a certified instructor, the girls would be in ski school. However, in terms of learning, there isn't much point right now because they are basically getting free private lessons from DH.

We definitely will be putting them in ski school eventually, if for no other reason than just so they have some fun.

FWIW, DH is very opposed to non-instructors "teaching" children how to ski.


:yeahthat:

Ski instructors can probably get kids skiing a lot faster too, they know lots of ways to teach the skills and won't pass along any bad habits...just like if you were to teach your child to golf, play tennis etc.

I think some places do a half day ski school and then you could ski together for fun as a family, without the pressure to be 'teaching'.

[niccig]

My biggest thing was that every family we talked to said what a great "family vacation" they were having, yet none spent the day with their children.



Maybe they meant it was an activity that both the parents and the children enjoyed. Our activity pre-DS was scuba diving, that is definitley not a family activity.

Skiing is something for people of different levles. Like the OP said, maybe the parents are not confident in teaching their own kids. Our friend has been skiing since he was a child, but he knew he couldn't teach his girls, so they go to ski school, then meet up with Dad in the afteroon and he takes the eldest up the mountain while the youngest stays lower down with mum. When the girls are both skiing at a higher level, he'll take them all the time. When we go next, DS will go to ski school because DH and I will be having our own lessons, we definitely can not teach him. We're planning a week long trip with my sister and BIL. We'll have DS in ski school in the mornng, and hopefully my sister/BIL will be up for going with DS as I still don't think DH or I will be up for more than the bunny slopes.

I would also be careful in passing judgements on how much time these parents spent with their kids on vacation. You don't know how much they did together as a family.

[AnnieW625]

We used to cross country skiing together (I started at 4, and my brother was 18 mos. old) and we'd do an easy loop with my mom and my dad would do something harder. For downhill skiing starting at about age 8 (I think my brother may have been 5) we would go to ski school, which was honestly better than spending the day with my dad who is very proficient skiier and would have us black diamond runs with him, and them my mom could do the green and blue runs for a while when we were just learning to ski. Once I was about 10 or 11 then I didn't have to go to ski school and my brother and I would ski the same green run twice while my dad did a black run or we'd just ski together.

I wouldn't pass judgement either.

[StantonHyde]

My kids will actually listen to an instructor--they did not want to listen to us. We live in ski country and my kids need to ski well to ski with their friends etc. They did 10 weeks of lessons last year (every Saturday for 1/2 day). That was so I could get them both to the point that they got on and off the lifts by themselves, they could stop and turn, etc. This year I put them in a 3 lesson series in December as a refresher. Now we ski every weekend usually--but it has been so cold here and that isn't much fun. So we will start up again next weekend when it is warmer.

As for a family vacation. To me that means something that everybody can do and have fun doing. Skiing with kids all day isn't necessarily fun when you are a good skiier. Also, some kids prefer ski school because they are very social and they have fun skiing with other kids. As long as they are having fun, I don't care if they are with me or not. They still have plenty of time together in the evenings etc.

Good ski schools are very, very careful about their ratios. For young children, it is usually 3 or 4 to one. The lifties help them on and off. If kids don't listen well and follow directions well, then ski school isn't the best idea. DD is not the best listener but she hops to it in ski school. The discipline is good for her. DS would just whine at us--in ski school he is awesome! Skiing isn't something you learn in one season. It takes a long time for kids to get to the point of making parallel turns. I am still working on my turns!

I have fun skiing with them now, but it is still easy skiing for me. I am taking a womens clinic because I need to be able to do well on bumps and powder. Because soon the little buggers will be better than me!!

[hbridge]

Please understand that I'm not judging as much as trying to understand. We ski almost every weekend and for us, ski school is not an option since I won't let DC ski on their own with the ratios I've seen on the slopes. I would consider a private or semi-private, but not more than three to one (if the lifts all accomodated quads). I guess since one woman actually admitted it's really babysitting, it was tough for me. There were a lot of couples and adults, but very few had children skiing with them and many were joking about how the kids were "in ski school so they could ski". The attitude was very much that the kids were "out of their hair" so to speak. It was really hard for DH and I to witness, expecially after hearing about kids being seperated from their group. DC would be petrified!

Also, I understand kids taking lessons, but these were full day, 9 to 4 style classes that only had half days of skiing. I guess it's just not for us :).

Again, not judging as much as trying to understand...

[janeybwild]

Interesting perspective. I guess since DH is an expert skier with some teaching experience I just don't think too much about it. My biggest thing was that every family we talked to said what a great "family vacation" they were having, yet none spent the day with their children.



A good family vacation for me is one where everyone has fun. Has less to do with how many hours you spend with your DC. Presumably they ate meals together and there was some downtime together with lots of stories to share, so I don't see that as a big thing at all.

[ABO Mama]

We ski as a family (7yo and 4yo). I have skiied for years, and raced pre-kids, so it seems natural for us to all go together. We usually pack a lunch, and eat sandwhiches on top of the mountain. We live near the hill, so we only go on nice sunny days, and don't stay all day so that the kids always leave happy and wanting more.