Aibu to think skiing is not an essential skill!

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My brother & his wife hate skiing but bring the kids once sometimes twice a year as they think it's an essential skill for their children to learn.. aibu to think this is ridiculous & it will never, ever come in useful in adult life!

But you need lessons. A family who has never skied before can not just turn up at the slopes with rented ski gear.

Beginner group lessons are fairly cheap. The green beginner slopes at the bottom of the ski lifts can be safely tackled by absolute beginners - but it would be important to choose the right resort (e.g. Austria has the accommodation in the valleys and exiting the ski lifts can be very daunting due to how crowded it can be. You'd be better off in a French resort where you can walk from the hotel to the green area and use the conveyor belts/travelators to get the hang of things).

Snowploughing is something most people pick up by lunchtime on the first day and the technique will get you down green and blue runs. I think most people manage to progress to blue runs within a couple of days, but there will always be some people that struggle and never get the hang of it.

I tackled a very icy black run on the Val Toren glacier at the end of my first week skiing with school. It was completely beyond my limited ski skills, so I reverted to snowploughing. It certainly wasn't pretty, but I got down safely.

If you've never been skiing, I can see why you'd write it off as something that's expensive and elitist, but it's really not like that and it's great fun. The views from the slopes are just incredible and it's a fantastic family holiday.

Give it a go.

Just remember to pack some Factor 50 sunscreen.

My daughter (10) can ski and snowboard as we lived near slopes for many years and now her school organises annual ski trips were the children can go all the way through to being instructors by age 16 - for a nice gap year in the alps or the rockies. We still own a house near slopes which we will go back to in a few years time when my husband goes back to remote work.

Not an essential skill like swimming but great to have and good way to earn some £££ for Uni. But I can ski and snowboard so I took her onto the slopes to begin with when she was little, seems odd your Brother and SIL see it as essential but can’t do it themselves? I don’t expect my daughter to anything I wouldn’t have a go at.

yes I also sail and horse ride - again not essential skills but I love them especially sailing. I didn’t come from a sailing family, I just loved Howard’s Way back in the day, and it seemed so glamorous. Sailing is not glamorous- there is a chemical loo I have to clean several times a season 😂