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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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?

637 replies

danishkids · 27/01/2022 23:49

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?

OP posts:
JangolinaPitt · 28/01/2022 07:04

Have not RTWT but definitely put them in ski school. Have had numerous ski hols with mine and they need the structure -it is only for a couple of hours anyway. Totally false economy not to.

MiddleParking · 28/01/2022 07:05

I’m a beginner snowboarder (with several weeks’ holidays worth plus quite a few lessons on a snow slope in the UK each year). I’d say the absolute best case scenario here is that you all go out on the first day for an hour, have a horrendous time, take your crying children and crying selves back to your accommodation and have a huge row with DH, don’t ski for the rest of the week and it’s a really horrible memory for all of you for the rest of your lives. The worst case scenario is that someone (maybe someone in your family, maybe a stranger, maybe both) dies or is seriously injured. I’m not being remotely dramatic or exaggerating. You need to get away from the idea that you can do without ski school and find a way that you can access the money you need today to make this holiday safe and enjoyable, including ski school for all of you. If you can’t do that then don’t go.

MiddleParking · 28/01/2022 07:09

@LentilNameChange

Flowers I hope you're ok OP, there have been some highly unnecessary mean comments on this thread.

The OP - with little to no skiing knowledge - asked a question in good faith, and she has been accused of criminal negligence. That is extreme and completely unwarranted imo. It is absolutely appropriate to notify OP of the potential risks and dangers and impracticalities, but completely unwarranted to imply that her plan was to take the kids to the top of the mountain and let them go. Nowhere did she say that!

I'm certainly not saying the OP's plan was a good one. But the pile on meanness is really not needed, is it.

She’s proposing the equivalent of her and her husband being non drivers and taking her 5, 7 and 8 year old onto the M6 to give them a few lessons. There really haven’t been any extreme or unwarranted responses here. It’s not just her own kids whose lives are at risk here.
BarbaraofSeville · 28/01/2022 07:09

Another one who's a bit baffled as to why you booked in the first place, for all the reasons already posted many times over.

I'd honestly try and move the holiday until next year even if it means paying a hefty change fee.

As well as ski school, what other costs do you still need to pay, eg food? As others have said, lunch in ski resorts is extortionate, so that's another cost you need to find. This is a sunk cost fallacy issue, you're looking at the cost you've already paid and thinking that means you have to go. But look at the costs if you do go - food and drink, ski school, possible injuries, other activities if they all hate ski-ing and refuse to do it.

If you do go, I'd either put the cost of ski school on a credit card and then be as frugal as possible over the coming months to pay it off, or look for other activities and treat it as a snow holiday, rather than a ski-ing one.

VikingLundyMalin · 28/01/2022 07:10

@MiddleParking

I’m a beginner snowboarder (with several weeks’ holidays worth plus quite a few lessons on a snow slope in the UK each year). I’d say the absolute best case scenario here is that you all go out on the first day for an hour, have a horrendous time, take your crying children and crying selves back to your accommodation and have a huge row with DH, don’t ski for the rest of the week and it’s a really horrible memory for all of you for the rest of your lives. The worst case scenario is that someone (maybe someone in your family, maybe a stranger, maybe both) dies or is seriously injured. I’m not being remotely dramatic or exaggerating. You need to get away from the idea that you can do without ski school and find a way that you can access the money you need today to make this holiday safe and enjoyable, including ski school for all of you. If you can’t do that then don’t go.
This pretty much sums it up - I’ve had a couple of lucky escapes after being hit from behind by out of control skiers and seen some awful accidents too. One of my colleagues was off work for nearly a year after a accident involving an out of control skier in France. You don’t have to be going fast to do some serious damage to yourself and others.
TurkeyRoastvBubbleandSqueek · 28/01/2022 07:12

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads

I hope you have some very good insurance x
Unfortunately once it comes to paying out, the insurance company will ask a lot of questions, and as soon as they find out that one of the adults can't ski (only skiing for a few hours when you were 16 sadly doesn't count as skiing), and that the three children had had no professional lessons, they would class that as going against their rules, and would probably not pay out anything. The OP is mad, and so is her DH.
Octomore · 28/01/2022 07:13

Do you know how expensive these resorts are in general? £30+ for mediocre spaghetti …

To be fair, that's not an obligatory cost on a ski holiday. We do ski holidays on the 'cheap' (not properly cheap but YKWIM) by taking a packed lunch each day and self catering. We certainly don't buy our food on the piste.

Ski school for beginners though - that's an essential cost! The holiday is pointless unless everyone can either ski or is having lessons.

Octomore · 28/01/2022 07:15

Honestly OP, if you can't afford ski school, you can't afford a skiing holiday. Sorry to say it.

Save the cost of the kit and the list passes and do something else.

needmoreshinys · 28/01/2022 07:16

OP

I am going to pile on as well, myself and my then boyfriend went skiing, I had been skiing all my life, he was a novice, we lasted 3 hours before he went and booked himself lessons.

Also, just to say my sister, again skiing her whole life, was in an accident on the slopes, fractured her pelvis, she ran into someone, that was two people who knew what they were doing on a blue run.

HasaDigaEebowai · 28/01/2022 07:16

The op is going tomorrow. I doubt any of this is going to make any difference to her at this stage.

Glittertwins · 28/01/2022 07:16

You can't ski yourself and you want to teach your children?? I don't know where to start!!
Get them taught properly before you all injure yourselves and other people!!!

ImInStealthMode · 28/01/2022 07:18

The only person I know who sufficiently taught his own kids to ski has been skiing himself since the age of two and spent several winters working as a ski instructor. Even then he still put them in ski school on holiday so he could ski himself for a couple of hours! (And it wasn't 3 complete beginners at once).

There is just no way you can do this OP. Either make it a snowy holiday without skiing, or find the money to put all of you in ski school.

Thelastbattle · 28/01/2022 07:18

I can't even imagine doing this without ski school.. Sorry.
My dh is a really experienced skier (and was way before we had our children) and is patient and good at teaching - but they went to ski school until they were mid teenagers.
They are now better skiers than he is.
Our youngest was 5 the first time we went and it was hard work for the time they weren't in ski school, just because of their age.
Within a week of ski school they could ski pretty well (really long blue runs) - I doubt we'd have got off the nursery slope otherwise.
If you're definitely going skiing i would sacrifice something somewhere else to be able to afford ski school.
Sorry but I can't imagine any other solutions

shouldistop · 28/01/2022 07:20

@Merryoldgoat

I’m no skier. But it sounds pretty mad to try to teach three small children to ski when neither of you can ski yourselves.
This
Thelastbattle · 28/01/2022 07:21

Oh and I was in your position. I also went to ski school for all our holidays whilst the children did. Without that I would be even more behind all the rest of the family than I am. To me - and I'm not great so maybe others would disagree - there's nothing intuitive about skiing. I don't think I could have learnt myself.

alphabetsoup1980 · 28/01/2022 07:22

@Merryoldgoat

Is this a joke?

You’re short on cash so SKIING is the holiday you’ve decided on? When none of you can ski?

I honestly don’t know what the fuck goes on here sometimes.

Highly unpleasant
YetAnotherUsernameToday · 28/01/2022 07:22

Is this whole thread a joke?

I cannot believe the arrogance of someone thinking they can teach three children to ski because they have watched YouTube. Are there really people out there like this?

I'm appauled at the lack of research and consideration demonstrated. Someone is going to get hurt here...

Plantagenous · 28/01/2022 07:22

@danishkids

We will all be wearing helmets
It doesn't matter that the kids are wearing helmets. If they areout of control they can permanently injure or kill themselves or others. If there was going to be no-one else around that would be something but that is unlikely.

Ski school isn't just for kids, it's for adults too. You need to go and learn to ski safely too OP. I went to ski school in France and again in Italy the following year. It was great fun and the students are protected by the coach.

Your idea is naive and frankly dangerous and may put them off for life something that is the best fun you can have with your clothes on.

Dentistlakes · 28/01/2022 07:23

How are you going to teach your kids to ski when you aren’t competent skiers yourselves?

I would strongly recommend you all enroll in ski school. You can then ski together in the afternoon. I think you’re crazy not to.

Glittertwins · 28/01/2022 07:24

The French actor who died on a ski slope last week was also wearing a helmet...

PrisonerofZeroCovid · 28/01/2022 07:24

My dh is a really experienced skier (and was way before we had our children) and is patient and good at teaching

Ha- yeah DH is patience personified but the one time I've really seen him lose his shit was when we were skiing and DS wouldn't listen and then missed the lift.

there's nothing intuitive about skiing

Almost the opposite- everything you feel "safe" doing (leaning into mountain etc) is the opposite of what you're meant to be doing Grin

alphabetsoup1980 · 28/01/2022 07:27

@LentilNameChange

Flowers I hope you're ok OP, there have been some highly unnecessary mean comments on this thread.

The OP - with little to no skiing knowledge - asked a question in good faith, and she has been accused of criminal negligence. That is extreme and completely unwarranted imo. It is absolutely appropriate to notify OP of the potential risks and dangers and impracticalities, but completely unwarranted to imply that her plan was to take the kids to the top of the mountain and let them go. Nowhere did she say that!

I'm certainly not saying the OP's plan was a good one. But the pile on meanness is really not needed, is it.

I completely agree. Some really unpleasant people on here - there's a fifference between being honest and just plain nasty. I hope you are okay OP!! I took my 2 and 5 year old. We went sledging all day and on a sleigh ride. My husband whizzed off skiing which was fine by me. I skied once and wasn't keen- I was a complete novice! The kids clubs are usually really good as well.

You will have a fab time - just be careful to limit uour expectations if what you'll actually achieve regarding the skiing!!!

Don't let the hideous comments on here put you off. The fresh air, clear blue skies and mountains will be amazing!!!!! Xxx

ImInStealthMode · 28/01/2022 07:27

Just to add, the last time I went skiing I had a relatively small slow fall that resulted in my loosing my skis and sliding uncontrollably. The ONLY reason I didn't severely injure or kill myself going over the edge of the piste was because the very competent ski instructor I was with managed to catch me up, grab me and stop both of us.

If you're only learning yourselves (and out-numbered by your kids) how could you possibly help them in a situation like that?

Sleepyteach · 28/01/2022 07:33

I’m a pretty experienced skier who learnt without going to ski school (I was too young). However I think your plan is absolutely insane and incredibly dangerous for you, your kids and other skiers. I had two VERY experienced skiers teaching me and a lot of the time on the nursery slope two none skiing adults as well. So four people just for one child. I still had an accident that was 1cm away from being life changing. Do whatever it takes to get you and your kids in ski school. You don’t have the experience to teach your kids and there is no way you can properly supervise three beginners on the slopes between two of you. Especially when they decide to go off in three different directions at high speed and one takes a wrong turn onto a run that is beyond your capabilities. You’ll also get so much more out of your trip with lessons, with five of you it might be more cost effective to have a private instructor for all of you.

themessygarden · 28/01/2022 07:33

Absolutel madness. Plus it will probably put the kids off skiing for life. If i were me, I would do what I could to find the funds for ski school, otherwise the holiday cost and the cost of renting equipment and ski passes will be money down the drain.

If you really, reall can't pull the money together for ski school and it's too late to cancel, then, just forget about skiing this trip, enjoy the mountains, some nice walks, sleds and rent some snow shows.