at least twenty other under-13s are either whining or weeping about having to be here at all.
That's what I told myself, anyway, as for the third time that morning I took Helen by the unmittened hand (we brought the Wrong Gloves, the ones to which frostbite is preferable) and led her away from the baby-bunny slope ("I want to go hooooome," cried one small person as we trudged by), through the outdoor lunch tables at the lodge ("My booooots huuuurt," wept someone else), past the basement lockers ("I don't WAAAANT to skiiii"), and into the bathrooms ("WAAAAAAH"). Which made my own temporarily non-weeping child seem positively ski-demonish by comparison. Granted, she did very little skiing, and what she did involved holding a non-skiied grownup's hand at all times--but still! She wasn't crying! Most of the time!
Overall, though, our ski weekend went pretty well. Silas and his cousin actually went on the lift several times in a row, and for the first time since Si started going on the lift I wasn't terrified the whole time. It was even...kind of fun, skiing with him. He skied rakkishly under signs, between trees, and up and down those little pathways alongside the catwalk. I can see that soon I will be terrified by his skiing in a totally new way--the way we sort of signed on for, when we first started teaching him to ski.
I can hardly wait.
5 comments:
Torsten and I don't ski, but since our kids will be Colorado natives, I'm guessing they'll want to. We're going to have to sign them up for lessons or something. And get them helmets.
Sounds like fun and I applaud you for sticking with this!
My big regret is not pushing my daughter a bit harder to enjoy the slopes and the snow. We do, after all, live in a ski resort. But she was one of the whiners and I let her get away with it. :(
It helps us in the pushing that both my husband and his sister (our main ski partner) were big weepers-on-the-slopes themselves as kids, so they Understand (my husband also broke out of it at some point to become a fantastic/fanatic, so they know there's hope).
I remember having skiing tantrums between the ages of about 4 and 12. Half the time I was a snot. The other half the time I loved it. The love eventually won out for me, as it did with your husband and his sister.
Oh, and it also helped that I wanted to keep up with my older brother. That might eventually motivate Helen, too.
Oooh, yes! SO far the Older-brother-as-motivator hasn't done much for her skills (except running: man, that girl can MOVE, and she can ALMOST run faster than Si)--but I can foresee a time when it will.
Post a Comment