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?

@danishkids

Of course we will stick to the easiest slopes, to keep the kids and others around us safe.

exactly how can you keep your kids and others safe? what's your plan?

Has anyone taught yourself and kids on your own?

Yes, both my husband and I, with one kid at a time (as they came of age) and we are both very experienced skiiers (decades of skiing). Even then, we only did it to build confidence for an hour or so, then straight into ski school where the professionals can teach them properly (without our bad habits). We did just provided some extra guidance in the afternoons (although they were usually ready for a nap).

It's an extremely dangerous sport. I've been taken out by inexperienced snowboarded and skiiers plenty. I've seen many knee caps torn off, head injuries, broken legs and ankles, even deaths.... it's incredibly serious.

Would you chuck your kid on a horse without a proper instructor, alongside a load of other riders, even if you were standing by?

So you're going on this ski holiday tomorrow...honestly I would strongly advise to get booking school ski at the resort you are going to be at!

You and your DH should ideally have some lessons, but for your kids it's an absolute necessity as they've never skied before

Before anyone asks, no I've not read all 452 replies before I wrote mine!

At least for the first day, you need to book a private lesson for the family. You can teach your children to ski if you are a good skier, but it’s still preferable for them to learn in ski school.

The fact that you can’t ski means it’s absolutely insane to think you can teach yourself and your children. Madness. Book a lesson for the family, on the first day. Preferably a full day private lesson. At least you’ll have something reasonable and practical to practice for the rest of the holiday.

So for all of you that are afraid that we will Kill someone, for those accusing me of trying to kill My kids that is just insane!

No, it's not insane at all. Experienced skiers die every year on the slopes because the mountains are unpredictable. The weather can come in at a moments notice. You could get caught in a blizzard where you can't see more than a few inches in front of your face. You could be skiing happily and then hit a patch of sheet ice or a rock hidden under the snow and end up with a broken leg.

I'm glad you're now looking at lessons but I really want to know how you thought you could teach three young children to ski when you can't even do it yourself? How were you planning to control three young fearlessbeginners when you're beginners yourselves? How will you go and stop one of them from doing something silly several metres away on a busy slope when you have two other kids to watch out for, neither of whom know what to do?

My dad had been skiing for 30+ years when I first went skiing - he STILL didn't teach me because of how dangerous it can be. I went to ski school and learnt the proper techniques with proper instructors who knew exactly what they were doing. Only after several years of ski school did I go out properly with my parents all day long.

Yes, skiing great fun when you know what you're doing, and nothing beats it on a clear day with blue skies, sunshine and fresh powder, but as learners, you're going to be spend most of your time on your bottom, getting increasingly frustrated when you fall (again) and feeling very cold as you do a lot of standing around learning all the techniques. You'll also be incredibly tired and sore after a day on the slopes - expect lots of tantrums!

As someone that has worked in a ski resort for a few years and seen a lot of injuries I would say this is a dangerous idea considering you don’t have much skiing experience. Medical care in the country will be more expensive than ski school.

Check on Facebook if there’s a group for the area you’re going to and post if there’s any instructors free for some lessons.

It sounds like you’re barely able to ski yourselves! It’ll be a complete nightmare with all of you probably being complete menaces all over the piste…

Get them taught properly (it makes such a difference) and maybe enjoy hooking up for a couple of runs at the end of the day.

In fact, unless you can carve effectively and efficiently, you’d probably benefit from lessons yourself!

@danishkids

Thank you for all Of your replies.

Some of them were really mean. You can choose to say things in a polite way even if you want to get a message across.

As for being stupid, dumb, mad, idiotic etc. I genuinely didn’t realize how important ski school was. If you look online, you find information about kids ski schools, but also a lot of tips about how to teach yourself and your kids to ski.

So having only skied a few hours in my life as a teenager, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect. I also had some friends and family say it would be fine but a lot of people also said it wouldn’t.

We have also had people say to
Us that you can’t travel
Long distance with you kids, but we had no problem with that, actually we loved it!

The reason I asked here was to gain perspective, real perspective. As you can read a lot online. Some of the skiing videos we saw really gave is the impression that you can learn/teach on your own. Maybe that was wishful thinking. But there is a lot of information out there for and against learning on your own.

So for all of you that are afraid that we will
Kill someone, for those accusing me of trying to kill My kids that is just insane!

I would never want to put people at risk. We are looking into ski lessons now.

To be fair if you haven’t hit the experience how can you know about the dangers. Maybe next time take a polite approach.

I’ll
Update how the holiday goes when we are done

Ps as for having the right gear. He have bough a lot! The kids won’t freeze! I have done a lot of research. We will
Also be renting and the rental place fits the skis/boots for all of us. (Safely) so of course I won’t let my kids wear unsafe skis everyone has to start somewhere

I don't know why you've bothered watching YouTube "tutorials, tbh. There's no telling you anything, is there? You seem to have all the answers already. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Do please tell which resort you're going to. For our safety.

I watch Eurosport coverage of ski racing and Ski Sunday. That doesn't mean I'll be able to whizz down the piste in Kitzbuhel like Dave Ryding.

Also: I don't care about being rude. There's not really a polite way of telling you how idiotic you sound to people who have many years of actual experience.

@jimmyhill

Clearly a reverse

What, you think it's the kids posting? Or maybe a ski school?

Anyway, OP is clearly insane to even consider this.

If money is too tight to think about yours and other's safety, go to Butlins!

I mean even simple things like helping them stand up when they’ve fallen over, reattaching a lost ski etc take a certain degree of skill.

Instructors can also make sure you only ski runs that are safe. It’s weary to see a green run on a piste map and assume it’s suitable for beginners, but I have been on shallow slopes that have exposed drops to the edges that simply aren’t safe for anyone who can’t turn confidently.

@danishkids

It is not a reverse. I genuinely didn’t realize that most people used the ski schools.

As for finances we booked the holiday before we bought a house (not knowing we would buy a house, our circumstances changed and we needed to move out of a rental) so we didn’t plan on having less money for the holiday.

No mattter what, we will
Go now it’s booked and paid for. So does anyone have some helpful tips for us, apart from putting the kids in ski school

Get an extra part time job? Use your credit card? Eat baked beans every day to save money? Perhaps ask questions like this BEFORE you book? Rein in the champagne tastes if you can't afford the lifestyle?

Reality is, this isn't going to work or be particularly enjoyable or safe (for you or other people on the slopes).

Traveling long distance is totally different to skiing unless you and the dc are flying the plane to get there.

There is a safety element to skiing making it more like scuba diving or driving.

Learning to ski by yourself is more realistic if you live somewhere with snow and can do a little every weekend.

I hope you have a lovely and safe holiday.

I mean even simple things like helping them stand up when they’ve fallen over, reattaching a lost ski etc take a certain degree of skill.

Definitely.

I have a vivid memory of my dad taking a very impressive tumble on a very gentle green run in Canada. He caught his ski on a rock or branch and lost both skis, a pole, hat, goggles and a glove, lol.

Luckily he's experienced (as are my mum and I) so between us we knew how safely get everything organised and back to him, but I would not want to be doing that as a beginner with another beginner adult plus three young children - it would be chaos!

Reality is there are certain sports that people think they can just 'teach themselves' but this is wildly misconceived because of the safety aspect. Anything that might require extra insurance cover or is viewed as 'extreme' in anyway definitely falls into that camp. Skiiing is certainly one of those sports.

Then trying to teach kids on top. Wow.

Naive doesn't cover it.

It's worth noting, and not obvious to people who've not skied mich, that even on the "easy" slopes you get very experienced people skiing very fast. They shouldn't, but they do.

Usually the easier slopes are lower down, and often this means they are the access route home/to bars/to the boot store etc and everyone needs to use them. They can be a real bottle neck and very busy. So to have five beginners, three of whom are under ten, noodling around without a general awareness of the dangers and etiquette and drunk Jorge from Austria comes hurtling down - it's just a recipe for disaster.

Ski school have cordoned off areas and instructors know good quiet places, which can vary depending on the time of day and weather.

They also know things like "don't use that piste in the morning because it faces north so is icy and cold until afternoon" and "don't use that other slope after lunchtime because it will have been busy in the morning and be churned up and full of mogals" etc. Stuff newbie skiers, and even experienced skiers who don't know the resort, won't even consider.

Its a bit like the two of you teaching 3 kids to drive, when only one of you has just passed the test and not driven since....................................... (and the other cant drive....)

Funnily enough I was having this conversation with my DH the other day. I used to absolutely love skiing. But the last few times that I went, I hated it. The reason being that with cheap flights etc, it has become far too accessible to people who can't really afford to do it properly. They get their £20 Ryanair flight out there, cheap accommodation, and cut corners on getting proper kit, lessons etc. The amount of out of control idiots that I encountered last time I went, has seriously put me off. It sounds like OP and her family fall exactly into this category.

@itsgoodtobehome

Funnily enough I was having this conversation with my DH the other day. I used to absolutely love skiing. But the last few times that I went, I hated it. The reason being that with cheap flights etc, it has become far too accessible to people who can't really afford to do it properly. They get their £20 Ryanair flight out there, cheap accommodation, and cut corners on getting proper kit, lessons etc. The amount of out of control idiots that I encountered last time I went, has seriously put me off. It sounds like OP and her family fall exactly into this category.

I don’t think the cost of the flight or accommodation matters, but kit and lessons, yes. If you can't afford to do this safely, with proper instruction when you need it, then you need to take a different holiday.

How about doing things on a ski-holiday that aren't skiing?

As an adult who can't ski very well I hated ski holidays when skiing was the only thing we did every day but most resorts have other activities like sledging or ice-skating, snow-shoe walking etc that doesn't need skill or ski-school and I found to be much more accessible 'fun' than spending all day every day trying to learn something new and landing on my arse.

This ^
A lovely young French actor was killed last week - he collided with someone where two blue pistes crossed - he was stationary and collided. Gaspard Ulliel ...

No point in commenting about the importance of ski school as its been covered in every single way. I am so surprised anyone has told you it will be OK TBH. Glad you are looking into ski school now, I'm sure you will enjoy your trip. One thing I would say is I absolutely love having private lessons with an instructor, the rest of my family are really experienced skiers so I enjoy feeling more relaxed and not having to keep up with them constantly.

Just remember that blue slopes aren't for true beginners, not all of them are that easy for the while slope, at the main place we tend to ski the ski home is a very long blue slope, the end of it is harder than a lot of red slopes so it can be misleading.

Unless you know the ski area well then navigating what is suitable for your group is really hard. I have been for about 4 short ski trips, I would not be confident (or capable) enough to help a young child up if they fell over or to teach them correct technique. I have seen a couple of friends kids who only did ski school on their very first trip and they are really bad skiers, they get down slopes confidently enough but they are not good at it at all. My DCs can tackle any reds and lots of black slopes and still have lessons when we go, usually a private lesson each just to keep ensuring they are doing everything correctly. I want to feel happy that when they go away skiing with mates they will be safe for their own benefit as well as others.

It's worth noting, and not obvious to people who've not skied mich, that even on the "easy" slopes you get very experienced people skiing very fast. They shouldn't, but they do.

There is no rule against experienced skiers going fast on an easy slope - provided they are in control and can stop in time (including taking into account poor visibility or snow conditions). It is the faster skier's responsibility to avoid hitting those downslope by taking evasive action if necessary.

But this is all part of the reason that skiing is a skilled and dangerous activity.

Skiing involves multiple human beings sliding down snowy/icy slopes at different speeds and in different directions, surrounded by potentially fatal hazards just off the side of the piste (e.g. avalanche prone terrain, trees, chairlift machinery, and cliffs). Some skiers will be totally in control and skiing safely within their capabilities, others will not.

I know it sounds like people are being alarmist, but it's not an exaggeration to say that anyone who skis regularly will have seen at least one scary accident, and probably witnessed a dozen people being towed down the slopes on a stretcher over the years.

@BobBobbity

I mean even simple things like helping them stand up when they’ve fallen over, reattaching a lost ski etc take a certain degree of skill.

Instructors can also make sure you only ski runs that are safe. It’s weary to see a green run on a piste map and assume it’s suitable for beginners, but I have been on shallow slopes that have exposed drops to the edges that simply aren’t safe for anyone who can’t turn confidently.

Yes this totally! We were skiing in a new area last time I went, DS2 had been in the morning with his instructor and said it's definitely a red this way, it wasn't, it was a black, I bottled it, fell over, because it was steep I was too nervous to get back up on my skis. Took one ski off, dropped it down the slope. DH walked up to me, got my other ski up, skied down the slope with my ski so I could walk. He has skied for 30 years, he could have done a number of things to help me down, I would have been totally useless if I had to do that for someone else.

Even DH has got lost in a ski area he knew well, he has to manage with 2 young DCs and get them back safely. Both fell over on the button lift and he had to walk up the slope to pick them up. Luckily they could ski well enough to get down the slope as weren't beginners but really daft things can go wrong.

Memories of my first day skiing - lessons in the morning, then my friend accidentally led me to the top of a red run because he'd got lost. No other way down other than to try to ski it. It was really scary, and I was an adult!

I got hit by a boarder last time I went, it was a completely empty slope, he lost control behind me and took me out completely. He just couldn't turn properly as was clearly too much of a beginner. Luckily neither of us were hurt.