Aibu to Think that it Will be easy enough to go on a ski holiday with a 5, 7 and 8 year Old, without putting the kids in ski School?

[danishkids]

We Will go on our first ski holiday ever on Saturday and I’m really looking forward to it. But the more I chat with friends/family, the more people are making me nervous. We are 2 adults, my husband and I. I have only ever been on skis for a few hours when I was 16. My husband has skied a few times.

Everyone I talk to tells me that I’m
Crazy and that it’s impossible to teach 3 kids at once. That it will only end up
With irritated children and parents. Am
I crazy to think that it will be fine? Or am
I just having wishful thinking?

Do you have any tips for first time
Skiers? Especially with kids? Any good techniques to help the kids learn fast?

I’m exited about this holiday, but maybe I shouldn’t be?

I can't ski. The thought terrifies me. But I can swim very well. I still wouldn't go throwing my non-swimmer child into a lake! Or taking them on the motorway in a HGV for their first driving lesson.

Would love to know what possessed you to book such a holiday? There are lots of things about ski holidays that I do like the idea of even if skiing is a big nope for me - best to just stick to that side of things!

Oh, and I would add that my exH is a very experienced skier who lost his balance on ice and broke his hip in a freak accident immediately after moving off from a standstill and had to be dragged off the mountain on a slegde towed by the ski patrol ...

OP, I hope you enjoy your holiday

You really do need lessons. It's unsafe otherwise

This is madness. Skiing is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

We're on our third holiday and still use ski school.

What will you do if there's a whiteout and none of you can see? An instructor knows what area to go to each day and where is icy etc.
How will you use a lift?

Can you cancel?

You must be jesting? As inexperienced skiers teaching your DCs to ski?
For safety reasons alone I wouldn't even attempt it.
Put them in ski school for at least half days and then have some private lessons whist they are at ski school. Then in the afternoons you can all practice what you've learned.
And as per previous poster...make sure you get very good health insurance!
I am an experienced skier and would never attempt to teach my own DC.
Putting your DCs in ski school will be money well spent.

@Rainbowshit

To those saying book a private lesson. A private lesson for a couple of hours will probably be nearly as expensive as ski school for the whole week. Also a friend tried to book a beginner private instructor for her and her kids and the ski school wouldn't instruct beginner adults and kids together. They said they learned in different ways and at different paces and it just doesn't work.

On my first ski trip I think a daily private lesson for me and DH was only marginally more expensive than ski school x 2.

At another resort we went to private lessons were really expensive so we opted for ski school.

I’d assume for a family of 4-5 a few days of private lessons would work out cheaper than ski school. But it’s a good point about whether an instructor would take a mixed age family group including adults and children.

Utter madness. "We watched YouTube and I did it when I was 16 so I thought we could teach the kids ourselves..." is essentially what you're going to have to communicate to medics when this goes very badly wrong. This all sounds like a recipe for stressed parents, agitated kids and at least one broken limb.

Book the ski school or an instructor for the family otherwise you'll end up in a bigger mess. How grossly irresponsible and immature.

Bob we had no problems booking a private family lesson with kids ages 8 and 10, although we had already done the basics in a snow dome.
I think proper ski school would have been better but it was Ok, the kids were way quicker learners than the adults though.

I have had a look at the prices of private lessons for a group of three kids of the relevant ages in a medium priced resort. €108 total for two hours.
Surely the OP can run to this? It would either be successful enough for her to proceed with her plan, or make her realise that lessons are the way to go.

And for people giving some hope to the OP about parents teaching their children - I’ve tended to see this with very experienced adults teaching children from a very early age - so being able to hold a toddler between your legs/on reins in a nursery slope. Being very competent to eg ski backwards while the child skis towards you.

A novice and rusty intermediate skier trying to teach a 5,7 and 8 year old is totally different.

@Panemetcircenses1

The girl who died on the ski slopes recently was in ski school! Fact is that 1 to 1 with an experienced adult parent a kid typically learns to ski faster than in ski school. Most English parents put their children in ski school so they can go off skiing and enjoy themselves. Many French, Italian and Swiss parents do not do this with their beginner kids.

Fact every ski instructor I know uses ski school for their kids. Kids have a different respect for teachers as they do parents. Exactly the same thing that makes home schooling kids torture.

OP, I suspect you're not coming back but if you do, if you could say which resort you're going to, some of us may be able to tell you what you'll be able to do, how many nursery slopes there are, how easy it is to book a private lesson for you all etc.

I don't know many ski resorts that don't offer private lessons? Most will offer a 2 hour private group lesson for about £180. It's likely they won't teach you all as a family though so you'd need to book 2 separate 2 hour private lessons, so realistically you will need to spend about £360 for a 2 hour introductory lesson for ALL of you. Could you whack that on a CC? Overdraft? You won't learn much in 2 hours but they will at least get you started with the basics and you'll then know how to get to the nursery slope/s etc.

It’s really irresponsible and dangerous.
Are your renting skis, poles, boots and buying lift passes ? If so then I’d cancel the rental / lift passes as that will be a complete waste of money.

If you can ski well, you can teach your kids the basics, but it doesn't sound like you've skied for a while, so I'm not sure you're going to find it that easy. Or safe. You know they'll be sliding all over the place don't you? And there are 3 kids and 2 of you?!

Honestly, get at least one of them booked into ski school on each day, and just take two kids at a time if needs be, but trying to teach 3 kids to ski, with two parents with minimal ski experience is pretty bonkers.

This cannot be real. You are going to put the skis on and all fall over.

Best case scenario you spend the holiday sitting in the cafe watching the slopes.

Worst case one or more of you could die. Seriously.

You talk about only using easy slopes - you won't get to the easy slopes if you can't ski. You can't Google how to ski and hope for the best.

This is dangerous and stupid.

My kids are 7 and 5. They have been in lessons since age 3. My DH and I are intermediate skiers. This year the kids did morning ski lessons and we skied as a family in the afternoon. On our second afternoon my 5 year went straight down a slope. I couldn’t catch him and there was no way he could get into a pizza stop position at the speed he was going. I was at the top of the slope screaming ‘slow down’ ‘turn’ ‘fall over’ but he went straight on down. There was a T intersection and big embankment of snow at the bottom. All I saw was him hit the embankment of snow and be catapulted up and over and down the other side. I couldn’t see him after that. I skied down as quickly as I could, but at the same time, almost not wanting to get there, because I couldn’t face what I might find. The most horrific images go through your mind. Other skiers stopped and climbed over the embankment. When I arrived (less than a minute but it felt like forever) they were walking my child (who was upset but unharmed) back up the hill. It could have been a very different outcome and it is an event that will haunt me forever.

I am honestly, seriously, shocked at your stupidity!!

I'm not even going to disguise my derision here (and I do usually at least try!!)

Your naivety and lack of planning for the welfare and safety of your children is appalling OP!!

Skiing is a really dangerous sport! I'm a great skier and can merrily whizz down black slopes all day long...but I've had two really bad accidents over the years, where boarders have taken me out from behind...and also witnessed some terrifying ones!

Even the very BASICS on the slopes can cause catastrophic, life altering injuries!! Using the many different types of lifts can be dangerous if you don't know how...and you've got 3 young children to navigate up the slopes!! I once saw a terrible accident where a young child slipped through a two man lift, as their sibling lifted the barrier too soon!

I have no words for your lunacy!!

@lap90

Do report back on how the trip goes OP.

From the hospital bed with the broken limbs!

Long time ago my father thought he could teach his four kids to ski, despite not knowing how to himself (he had about your level of experience behind him...).

We spend half a day on the nursery slopes, thinking we had just about understood snow plough (we hadn't, and my father wasn't experienced enough to spot our bad technique). On day two we were bored with the nursery slope and went up the lift.

That first foray into skiing resulted in two major breaks out of four kids, which is a bit of a heavy price.

If one of them, esp the adults, causes a serious injury to someone else I really wouldn't fancy their chances trying to defend themselves in court.

@Doona

I think it would be okay as long as you start on the baby slope. That's obviously really important. Don't just leap on the first chairlift you see.

NO IT REALLY WON'T!!!! 🤦‍♀️

Please don't encourage this madness!!!! Are you a skier?? This is possible THE most foolhardy, dangerous nonsense I think I've ever read on here...the OP is seriously putting her children into a dangerous situation here! 🤦‍♀️

As someone who went on their first ever skiing holiday 2 years ago, I'd say you'd be crazy to not put the kids, and yourselves, into lessons. I have a friend who's a very accomplished skier, and she still has the occasional lesson!

Either reschedule or accept it will be a skating, tobogganing holiday.

How you going to get them to stop on a mountain?

Serious question. All 3 rush down a mountain. Not able to stop.

How do you tell them to stop or how do YOU stop them? Ski school can be literally half a day. They’ll pick it up quickly.