Aibu to think skiing is not an essential skill!

[Clickoclock]

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!

Hence the different strokes for different folks, and it was a singular example. Many many people prioritise a summer holiday and many a package holiday deal. I also do weekend city breaks quite a bit, have done some inter-railing and touring by bike etc but the 2 week summer AI is probably the most equivalent in terms of monetary outlay looking on the big holiday provider sites. That or a cruise.

This

In lots of professions it will definitely help them in a cultural context - not essential skill as such though!

@lillylallylu

"I think all ski resorts should have their own fracture clinic attached"

They usually do in the resort towns.

Why does anyone think it's a good idea or a life skill to take young children up a mountain in winter in the cold, put them on the slippy snowy slopes then strap slippy planks to their feet plus to add to the risk have random (often drunk usually male) middle aged adults come hurtling down the same slopes as the children.

I mean what could possibly go wrong.

You would get a lot more life skills for your children by joining the local Brownies / Cubs and joining a local team sport.

Also if it's a desire to look posh then you would be better off knowing how to both keep and ride a horse, shoot a gun and wear the right wellies.

It’s a thing at my work. It’s not compulsory to join and the employee does have to pay towards it but it’s a lot of fun and definitely better if you can already ski

But skiing and joining cubs and local sports teams are not mutually exclusive, you can do both

You're winding your brother up, that's what sisters generally do.
You don't need an answer, you already know it.

A friend has taken her children downhill skiing since they were toddlers. Through that her oldest has discovered a passion for ski jumping and does it all year round (can do summer ski jumping too) and competes. Its not just for looking posh!

Alpine skiing - i.e. going down hill fast - No.

Nordic skiing - i.e. going cross-country on skis - Yes, but only if you live in northern Scandinavia.

This.
It's not a cheap hobby at all, and made much trickier when you don't live near snowy mountains.

At the grand old age of 51y dh and I are having our very first ski lesson tomorrow, along with our dd (early 20s.) I'm somewhat terrified 😝

Dd has moved over here, living up a mountain and in a ski resort. This is her first winter here and she has a series of lessons booked, and as we are visiting this week we decided to do a whole morning of lessons to get her started.

However, cheap it isn't!
Once we've bought the coats and trousers, the base layers, the gloves, the visors and helmets, paid for the lessons, paid for ski/boot hire, added in the cost of the the ski pass - it's all adding up.
We bet like it after all this expense.
Lease the flights were cheap(ish) and we can crash at DD's apartment,

Of course it’s not essential, but IMO it’s very nice for children who are lucky enough, to become reasonably adept at such activities when they’re young and not self conscious about looking or feeling stupid.

I was 40 when I went skiing for the first time, and never really became confident. At 9 and 12, though, dds took to it like ducks to water.

It's an essential skill if you're a social climber Nd have aspirations for your children to mix easily in wealthy circles as adults. ick

@Longma, good luck! I well remember feeling very nervous, but our instructor was lovely. And before we assembled for the first session, I remember looking at a lot of people in their very smart ski gear and thinking how super-experienced they must be.
In reality, these were largely the beginners! The experts (many of them anyway) were wearing any old thing that was warm and suitable.

@Natsku

"A friend has taken her children downhill skiing since they were toddlers. Through that her oldest has discovered a passion for ski jumping and does it all year round (can do summer ski jumping too) and competes. It's not just for looking posh!"

I agree it's not just for trying to look posh. I think there are a number of different for the keen interest in skiing :

1. trying to look posh
2. a complete inability to do risk assessment either for yourself or your children.
3. learning it as a skill if you intend to become a secret agent and need to suddenly escape from a baddies secret mountain base. Slalom becomes a useful additional skill when you need to dodge machine gun fire from the persuing snowmobiles.

Out of interest on a probability score there is quite a high risk of a life changing serious accident for your friend's eldest child in doing ski jumping. Not in anyway inevitable but nonetheless higher than say an interest in most other sports.

If god forbid something unfortunate did happen to your friend's child would she in anyway blame herself for encouraging said child to do that sport (skiing and ski jumping). Because I know I would and I would carry that guilt forever.

I agree. The sooner we get rid of all that meaningless rubbish, the better.

Where dd lives everyone appears to ski.
Newcomers learn to ski as soon as the snow comes, from what we've seen.
Skiing is the main PE lessons in the winter season, with some children only joining the school for that term.

Skiing is the main pastime from December to April, for young and old.
We went up yesterday and the slopes were so busy.

However. It isn't essential in that everyone needs to know how to ski as it's perfectly easy to get about without skiing. You just might find yourself with not much to do with friends if you don't at least learn.

Dd is a complete beginner whereas her new friends have been skiing since tiny. Have to say that they are all lovely and desperate to teach her - she won't go out with them just yet though as she wants a couple of proper lessons first,

The scenery is amazing. Dh and I could sit on her balcony and look at the mountains forever! It's so expensive though. I thought I lived fondue until I saw how much it costs every time. Vin Chaud, however ....

You obviously don’t ski because you’ve shown total ignorance about why people might enjoy it. Quite scathing towards people who did ski too - do they make you feel inferior?

Oh, our stuff is definitely not expensive gear - bar the odd bits we've been able to borrow! Mostly move is decathlon's finest :)

I never thought the day would come when I would willingly put skis in and try and move! I am early 50s, have arthritis and 6 months ago had shoulder surgery as a result. However, my surgeon has signed me off and told me it'll be good for me. Apparently it'll be much softer for me to ski following the surgery etc than if I was someone who could already ski, as I'll be more cautious and obvious jot going fast, etc.

We shall see tomorrow

We've got a private 3 hour lesson - cheapest way for the three of us to do it together. The instructor called yesterday and he seems lovely - he seemed very excited that we were complete beginners despite being older. Thing he likes the idea of the challenge 😝

It was essential for our dc to learn (and early) because dh and I weren't willing to give up skiing when they came along, so they had to keep up.

I kind of wanted them to learn young as well, as I knew from personal experience how much harder it is to learn when you are older, and I didn't want them to have to go through that if they married someone who was really into it (again, personal experience!).

Now it's their partners who will have to learn if they don't already ski...

@Clickoclock did they ever enjoy skiing? Maybe they hate it now because skiing with kids is a total ball ache. My DB and his wife are excellent skiers and took their DC from tiny. All were absolutely brilliant by the age of 9/10. The early years were not a lot of fun but now they spend weeks every year skiing together.

I personally hated skiing when I was able to do it but think learning as a child is a huge advantage, once you’ve got it you’ve got it forever and in certain situations that’s an advantage. Think Bridget Jones?!!

Skiing is fantastic fun. I learnt very young because my parents and their friends were all very sporty so a big social trip was one of our main holidays each year.

I still ski now as do most people I know. I only realised the social capital in it as I got older and saw how people who don’t ski can’t join in certain conversations or are seen as a bit of a hinderance on holidays if they don’t ski well.

So, skiing might be an essential skill depending on who they’ll be spending their time with. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a class marker though. I know a few (not many) smart of just wealthy people who don’t ski. Mostly Londoners.

Not essential but handy along with being able to play a round of golf, having excellent table manners and being able to converse on a wide range of topics and sit through boring sports. It means that if your career includes conferences in the mountains (scientific conferences often are), get dragged to a polo match with clients or get persuaded to play golf you are able, as a woman even more important. Dd has found being able to ski and play golf excellent for her career despite neither being part of it!

They only started as a family a couple of years ago. From what I can gather the kids are much better than db & sil. My niece & nephews group ski on higher levels with instructor.. yes their kids really enjoy it & over Christmas were very excited about their trip.

Skiing is also a brilliant family holiday - you are out and about during the day, lots of time on the chairlifts to chat and early stops which make for long, sociable evenings.

Make me feel inferior? On the contrary!

I do understand why people might enjoy it, but I never did and was irritated by the way people talked endlessly and boastfully about their prowess and their gear.