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Original poster

To not understand the snobbery around skiing?

287 replies

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/10/2024 06:22

An actual conversation I overheard:

"Virtually anyone can afford to go skiing these days"

Do people really still think like this in 2024? It just seems so classist....

OP posts:
Timeforaglassofwine · 14/10/2024 06:52

It's a sport. Learning to ski isn't expensive, going skiing though is. When my kids were young we lived near a dry ski slope. Every school holidays the slope ran day camps, so for £40 a day for the two of them they got a couple of ski lessons plus a hot lunch and activities. They can both ski pretty well. Scout and schools run ski trips, at a cost of about £1,500.

Original poster
Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/10/2024 06:51

We manage a few short breaks away a year. But then we don't use credit. Would hate to get a few grand in debt just to go to a 5* hotel!

OP posts:
YourLastNerve · 14/10/2024 06:50

See I didn't think it was much more expensive than say an all inclusive somewhere

A week in the alps for a family of four in Feb half term is going to set you back ten grand and change. Plus you need money for clothing & food when there. Its pretty inaccessible unless you have a high income and to become competent you need to have gone a few times, not just a one off holiday that year mum got a windfall win on the pools.

lamiconds · 14/10/2024 06:50

The thing with skiing is that it's a signal of multiple generational wealth

Almost no one takes up skiing as an adult - I said "almost" not none to be clear for the pedants - because as an adult, it's a lot of money to spend on a holiday that you might not like and where there are few other options if you don't like it

So it's a signal that you are from a wealthy family because you went skiing as a child and so did your parents etc etc

Original poster
Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/10/2024 06:49

Tulip8 · 14/10/2024 06:47

Well your mistake is thinking everyone can afford an all inclusive holiday abroad too!

They must be using credit cards because a few of my friends are definitely not well off but still manage to afford extravagant holidays at least 3 times a year.
Maybe it's more of a upper middle class mindset to go skiing, because it's not something the riff raff would want to do 🤔

OP posts:
RosesAndHellebores · 14/10/2024 06:47

The thing about ski-ing is that it's rarely the main or only annual holiday.

Tulip8 · 14/10/2024 06:47

Well your mistake is thinking everyone can afford an all inclusive holiday abroad too!

StamppotAndGravy · 14/10/2024 06:46

But going to an AI abroad is already pretty expensive. I'm in my 30s and hadn't left the UK until I was 21, so no way could I have learnt to ski. My family weren't even poor, just from a region where a lot of people didn't have money to go on holiday at all so a week in Cornwall already felt like a luxury

FourEyesGood · 14/10/2024 06:45

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/10/2024 06:35

See I didn't think it was much more expensive than say an all inclusive somewhere. One of the years in my sons school all got to go skiing, pretty much all of them went, and it's a normal state school. 🤔

Show quote history

My son (also at an average state school) went on a ski trip with school. We saved up because he really wanted to go, but we only really let him go because we knew he’d NEVER get to go skiing on a family holiday - mainly beside of the expense, but also because I’d rather just set fire to my money.

Skiing is still a very expensive hobby/holiday.

Guavafish1 · 14/10/2024 06:41

Mumsnet is full of that type of snobbery

Original poster
Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 14/10/2024 06:35

Crazyeight · 14/10/2024 06:29

It is a class thing because it's expensive. But I'd equate skiing with golf rather than a very posh activity. My colleague tried to spark up a conversation with me about black runs in some resort he did as a teenager. I had to point out that I just wasn't from the same background as him and the chances of me going skiing as a child were as much as him going to the rough skate park in our town. He hadn't considered someone 'poor' could have worked themselves into our job. You could see the shock in his face 😛

See I didn't think it was much more expensive than say an all inclusive somewhere. One of the years in my sons school all got to go skiing, pretty much all of them went, and it's a normal state school. 🤔

OP posts:
Crazyeight · 14/10/2024 06:29

It is a class thing because it's expensive. But I'd equate skiing with golf rather than a very posh activity. My colleague tried to spark up a conversation with me about black runs in some resort he did as a teenager. I had to point out that I just wasn't from the same background as him and the chances of me going skiing as a child were as much as him going to the rough skate park in our town. He hadn't considered someone 'poor' could have worked themselves into our job. You could see the shock in his face 😛