No snowboarding on school ski trip

[Gentillie]

This is so frivolous I know!

My DD is Y8 she has two very close friends and they are all going on the school ski trip in January. Today one of the friends dad has complained in our group chat non stop about how they aren’t allowing his daughter to do any Snowboarding, he claims he’s offered to send her with equipment etc.
Now when it comes to it, it’s because his daughter is better at snowboarding, she’s been going on a trip with her dad every half term since she was a child and always doing private snowboarding lessons. He keeps making it clear she can ski but isn’t as advanced.
He’s now asked a slightly larger group chat of parents 7 kids worth, to join him in complaining to the school as it’s unfair she won’t get to snowboard.
One of the parents has pointed out that it will be because for lessons they will split into ability groups and even if they made a snowboard group she’d probably be too advanced as it would be a small minority who would pick it.
Others have agreed it’s very unfair and will be joining him in complaining.

AIBU to think he’s being very precious and his DD can ski with everyone else for 5 days? Is this normal in your kids school or do they let them ski or snowboard.

Oh fuck off that dad, this is why teachers don't want to run school trips anymore.

I used to snowboard on my school's ski trips. Unless they're all doing lessons I have no idea what's wrong with a lone boarder tagging along with skiers? I went on the school ski trip multiple times and I have never skied 🤷🏼‍♀️

What a twat. Embarrassing to have his need to have his way / his daughter be the best at everything hold her back from a new experience. Surely learning skiing would only be a good thing if she’s already as good at snowboarding as he says.

I get what you're saying I'm just giving another view that maybe he's not a twat, maybe he just assumed snowboarding & other activities would be on offer. Even though it's a ski trip, most people that go to a ski resort don't just ski all week.

Competitive parents don't think like the rest of us though. Her being in the 'top' snowboarding group and impressing everyone with her skills will be seen as a 'win'. Heaven forbid she do anything in front of her peers where she isn't better than them

Plus learning to ski can be a bastard if you don't take to it. Snowboarding is way easier & much more fun. Maybe the school will take it as a suggestion to offer it on future trips 🏂🏂

It wouldn’t even occur to me that a ski trip wouldn’t be both ski and snowboarding. At this point it’s like saying we are going swimming but only using half the pool.

Maybe she would rather ski with her friends and keep snowboarding with him.

My child's school offers both (snowboarding costs more as smaller groups).

He sounds like a prick - you can perhaps understand why he’s divorced! DC’s school ski trip letters have always made it clear they don’t offer snowboarding as part of their trip. I’m assuming because a) it’s easier for first timers to pick up b) it would be a logistical nightmare trying to sort kids not only into ability groups for ski-ing, but also snowboarding and c) I think the staff who accompany each group are skiers rather than boarders.

Why on earth would the DD want to spend all week in a snowboarding class/group on her own anyway, whilst her mates are all off ski-ing in a ski lesson/group? It’s not like anyone would witness her Olympic standard riding skills if she’s stuck in a group by herself?! Would be bloody lonely and miserable.

I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall of the staff room

Well apparently an email has been sent and if he doesn’t get a reply for lunchtime he’s going to go in and talk to them?

It's also my understanding the cost is significantly higher and they need minimum numbers. I would say he's approaching it the wrong way. He would be better to ask if it's an option they would consider if they had the numbers. The organisation/risk assessment etc for these trips is so detailed. He does sound very entitled.

He's a twat.

If you want to control what activities your child does on a trip, you need to plan a trip yourself and take them on that trip in your own time. You can't sign them up for a school trip and then throw a tantrum when it doesn't cater to their individual preferences.

This sort of demanding and entitled behaviour from parents is happening more and more unfortunately, and it's why so many of our staff who used to volunteer to run trips won't do it anymore.

I grew up skiing and a ski holiday has always meant skiing and snowboarding. Within the ski holiday industry a ski holiday can mean skiing or snowboarding. Follow the link for an example…

It is not at all obvious to an experienced skier that a ski holiday does not include snowboarding. In fact it would be quite unusual. The usual assumption is that you could do either.

https://www.neilson.co.uk/ski?gadsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAxqC6BhBcEiwAlXp459gMJMx7w4TjDwnJ3Ion3B4d3tEPVvNr0EMfFZFABfVner4CjlT4xoCB2MQAvDBwE

Suggest that he plans and organises a youth snowboarding trip. He can give up his time and energy to look after other people's children to take them to do this activity if he's so passionate about it.

If the school was doing a language exchange trip to France, would he complain because his DD has been learning Spanish and he thinks the school is consequently obliged to provide a trip to Spain?

He's a twit.

Ours had both, but it was made clear that both would only be offered if the numbers were viable.

As in, there were 40 spaces available overall. Groups were made up of 8, so if 8 people wanted to snowboard they would make one group of snowboarders and the remaining 32 ski.

As it turned out, 8 people (including our daughter) expressed an interest in boarding or both, so they did run one group.

But if only 3 for example had wanted to board, it wouldn't have been arranged.

Is he going to complain that there's no days in France on the German exchange because his daughter speaks French? What a PITA. How crap for the school to put up with this nonsense.

It really isn't the same thing at all.

Whoops. Didn't read TFT

Have you ever been on a ski holiday?

This isn't a holiday. It's a school trip, which means the school decide what activities are on offer. They aren't obliged to cater to individual children's preferences, and they don't even have to justify their decision to not offer a particular activity. Assuming the trip isn't compulsory, parents and kids who don't like it are able to opt out.

If this parent feels so strongly that a few days skiing with no option to snowboard will be detrimental to his child, then he should have checked with the school before paying the deposit.