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 tried to take my dd out on her first skiing trip - she was 6 or 7. I was with my bf who is a very good skier and I have been lots of times too. It was disastrous. She just cried and cried. She fell off the button lift.

She had lessons for the rest of the week and by the end of it was very confident. I'm taking them again this year and they'll (including my teens) all have lessons. I'll even have a couple of lessons too!

Skiing is super expensive, there's no two ways about it. It'll be our main holiday this year. But cutting costs on lessons is just stupid.

The first time we skied, my younger DC was 5. The older one was 7. I'd skied twice before, for a full week at a time and going to ski school. My dh was very experienced and a very competent skier.
We did it on a shoestring (in skiing terms). We drove through the night to get there with a bootful of baked beans and pasta and didn't go out to eat once. We hired an apartment that was 500m from the slopes.
It was hard. Really hard. The 5 year old couldn't walk in ski boots or carry the skis. I struggled. Dh ended up carrying 3 pairs every day.
The 5 year old was cold. And wet.
The first 3 days were utterly miserable. They hated it. It snowed.
We all went to ski school (even dh because it's so much better than skiing alone). On the 3rd afternoon it clicked and by the end of the week the children were skiing really well.
They are now young adults and this year will be the first time they aren't going to ski school. They are really good skiers (ds always wins the resort races every time) but honestly it would have been beyond miserable if they hadn't been in ski school.
Even when they were older, the first day back on the slopes was always a bit dicey even just getting from the ski lift down to the ski school.
Safety concerns aside (and they're valid), the experience will be 1000 times better if they are being taught properly.
(I'm so scarred from that first experience that we have never been to accommodation that is not ski-in ski-out since! Although we are this year but I'm hoping the youngest one will now be carrying my skis).
Seriously it's a great experience and a wonderful holiday - but I think it is easy for it to be a disaster - and your plans are genuinely recipe for that!

I had been skiing for 25 years when I took my kids skiing for the first time. They still had lessons. Even trying to ski with them in the afternoons for the first few days was quite tough at first.

Skiing has become much more dangerous - the slopes are more crowded and the way skiers and boarders get down the slope is completely different. Being able to predict what a less experienced skier is going to do is critical to avoiding accidents.

I think many resorts are going to have to rethink the way that they allow faster skiers to get down to the shallower slopes at the bottom of the mountain. Too often people use them as a schuss.

@BobBobbity

Bit of an aside, but I went skiing with a group including a friend who had little ski experience and had no formal tuition. Although she could get herself down most runs, she was a complete liability to herself and others - she didn’t have the basic skills needed to ski in a controlled manner and was far too reliant on other people being able to get out of her way. She had completely misplaced confidence that because she could zoom down slopes that she was a competent skier. I would make excuses to go off skiing in my own because she was terrifying to be on the piste with.

I worked as a ski rep for a while. We got groups where some knew how to ski some didn’t. The beginners had hardly ever booked lessons and were intending to just tag along and have their mates teach them.

One of them usually ended up on crutches by the end of the week.

[quote paname]@Nanny0gg The little girl who died was in ski school at the time she died. The instructor had them under control in a single file line behind him when an out of control skier hit her at high speed. He's a disgrace and there should be a charge higher than manslaughter. [/quote]
I was hit from behind a couple of years ago. Sliced open my rear end! I felt lucky he didn’t break my back.

I’m a skier. I ski double-blacks, off piste terrain, etc. I still like to take a lesson or two every year.

If you and your husband are beginners, you cannot teach them yourselves. You wouldn’t be able to stop them if they went out of control. It’s not just about another skier hitting your child - I’ve seen a couple of really horrible accidents where an out of control child has ploughed into other people. I was wiped out myself by a five year on a lesson.

Be aware too that the easiest slopes can often be the busiest, especially at the end of the day. Beginners don’t have that spacial awareness or sixth sense about what people are doing, or how to read the slope/snow conditions, that experience brings. It’s a bit like driving a car, when you develop instinct about other vehicles.

For everyone’s safety, get lessons.

@minipie

The beginner area i am talking about is where all the learners learn, you hold on to a pole and are dragged up a tiny slope and let go at the top and it is where you learn to stop.

This kind of area is often only accessible to ski instructors and their pupils.

And if it isn't the instructors and ski patrol will have you removed quickly if you are putting others in danger.

[quote paname]@Nanny0gg The little girl who died was in ski school at the time she died. The instructor had them under control in a single file line behind him when an out of control skier hit her at high speed. He's a disgrace and there should be a charge higher than manslaughter. [/quote]
Oh yes, I realise it was the adult's fault.

Haven’t read the whole thread…. We recently took dd6 skiing, she has a week and half ski school already and we booked her in again. We had one day when she wasn’t in and we weren’t comfortable even doing that day, and I have been skiing for years.

OP, you may well find find out the ski school actually does half days, part weeks etc and they just don’t advertise them. Are you in a hotel (rather than sc) if so ask at reception when you arrive- they usually have great contacts with the ski school and can help sort you out.

I’ve only ever been skiing a few times and due to go next week but always went to ski school. Parents never skiied but you’ll want to try it yourself definitely you and it is dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing so definitely put kids in ski school. Everyone I know who goes with kids even if kids are fairly good, put them in ski school. Sometimes if kids are older and want to go with parents they let them sometimes.

"I've bought a car but DH and I don't drive. AIBU to put the kids in the driving seat and teach them? I've watched Top Gear twice and great aunt Eileen once drove me somewhere". Ffs. All kinds of no.

@wherethecrawdadsare

"I've bought a car but DH and I don't drive. AIBU to put the kids in the driving seat and teach them? I've watched Top Gear twice and great aunt Eileen once drove me somewhere". Ffs. All kinds of no.

'Obviously we'll stick to A roads and not go out on the motorway until they can do it. We're not complete idiots.'

Oh my goodness, in the nicest possible way you are crazy. I wouldn’t go skiing with the kids as I’m inexperienced (I’ve only been skiing 3 times and each time I’ve had lessons myself to improve!). Your kids need to be taught by a professional. Before we take our kids they will have lessons in the UK before we think about taking them away

This is a terrible idea and frankly unsafe. If you were an experienced skier and prepared to spend time teaching them then maybe, but this is irresponsible, dangerous, and won’t be fun for anyone.

Obviously, we will make them wear seatbelts.

[quote EsmeraldaandTeenytiny]Sorry haven’t read the whole thread but I want to be helpful (as far as I had read nobody was actually helping!)

I think you will find it a lot easier if at least one of you doesn’t ski when trying to teach the kids.
Find the easiest slope possible and start with the absolute basics. I think it might even be better for both adults to not ski when trying to teach the kids.
Keep sessions short and fun. Three year old might need an edgie-wedgie. As others have said teach them piste rules right from start.
This Instagram page is ace instagram.com/skitipsforkids?utm_medium=copy_link[/quote]
That’s insta page is fab, but it does say this

If the OP would actually tell us which resort they're going to, perhaps someone who's been there could offer advice about ski lessons, pistes, etc?

@RedToothBrush how is it sexist? Good Lord feminists never fail to entertain me

You've got to be joking

I am an experienced skier. I thought I could teach DH - a grown adult - to ski quite easily. I could not. It was a disaster.

There is NO WAY on earth you - a non-skier can do this. Put them in ski school or cancel the trip

This MUST be a wind up surely?

I haven't read the full 21 pages, so forgive me if someone has already suggested this: would cross-country skiing, snowshoeing or sledging be an option in your resort? That way you're not careering down a vertical slope terrifying yourselves and everyone you meet. In my experience, the cross-country trails are flatter and much quieter, and you would be together as a family. It's hard work, though!

You are not just putting you, your husband and your children at risk. There will be a lot of skiers who learn how to ski, the rules of the slopes and will ski fast, you and your family will be a hazard.

I’ve skied for around 30 years with and without children (I’m a nanny and ski with my employers) I love it but I am still very nervous. If someone gets in trouble in front of me, either they, I or both will end up in a heap.

One time a man who had one lesson came off a chair lift behind me, hit a snow drift which sent him into my side, grabbed my jacket, scared me and I grabbed him to get him off me and he fell on compacted snow, breaking 2 fingers and a knee.
Thankfully there was an instructor behind us who saw it all as the man said it was my fault.

I’ve also skied with many children on nursery slopes, they have no fear. One of my charges decided to go off a 6 foot jump, he was right next to me, had been told not to go near it, all of a sudden veered off and did the jump, he landed on his feet but he could have hurt himself or others. He didn’t do it again! His dad was furious.

The nursery slopes will be filled with children, who don’t follow the instructions and if you cannot control your skis, you could seriously hurt a small child or even a few as they are told to stay together.

Also, lots of skiers and boarders fly down the slopes at speed, some don’t give a damn about other skiers. They don’t care about children or adults, they just want to go as fast as they can.

Don’t put others in danger and make sure you have ski insurance for all of you and others.

This is an excellent idea. Could you do this instead OP?

I mean about going sledging, cross country skiing etc.

Can we stop suggesting cross-country skiing please? It's slower and obviously not as steep but it is also not without it's dangers.
And the skis are much harder to control than downhill skis - the length is an issue for one thing. You also need to be able to snowplough with one leg out of the tracks to stop. Unless the trail is completely flat you need to be able to control speed.
I cross country ski several times a week and I've lost count of the number of times I've had to help inexperienced skiers get themselves out of a tangle of skis, legs and poles. It's often really hard to get your foot out of the bindings when you've end up landing in an undignified position!
I've been XC skiing for 20 years and I still sometimes fall over on some of the very steep slopes, especially if they are icy.

It's true that it's slower and you're less likely to have a serious accident, but I still wouldn't recommend it, especially not to this OP who just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

I am inclined to agree that cross country isn't as easy as some are suggesting.
We had a lesson and DH gave up as he still fell over.
I enjoyed it but trying to learn to slow down on hills even small ones isn't easy.
I fell over trying to learn that.

It is also pretty physical and I could small dc getting tired quite quickly.

Sledding, tubing and snow shoeing are all pretty easy though.