Skiing with a 2.5 year old and 4 year old?

[Cakemaker2222]

Has anyone taken their 2.5 year old and/ or 4 year old skiing? If so would you recommend it? We are thinking of joining a group of family and friends on a ski holiday next Christmas and wondered if it would be enjoyable. Our DC will be 2.5 and 4yrs by next Christmas. I know we would probably enjoy it if the kids were older but it may be the last year my PILs go skiing so would be nice for my dh to make memories with them. We think the DC would enjoy the company and we think our 4 year old would enjoy the skiing. AIBU to take a 2.5 and 4 year old skiing?

Yes - but it depends on the hotel. We went to a kinderhotel in Austria which was absolutely super.

We did it last year at Valmorel and had a lovely time, though not much skiing for the adults! The 4 year old had a lovely time in Club PiouPiou all afternoon and the 2.5 year old enjoyed scooting along gentle greens with grandparents (there was a wonderful small nursery area accessible by bus, so we didn't need a lift pass for him). Beware though, my nephew (also 2) was deemed too underdeveloped in his legs to rent boots and skis. They did instead have a lot of fun in the sledge park.

2 1/2 is too young for much skiing, maybe a kindergarten with some outdoor play. Whether the ski school starts at 4 varies and may be limited sessions. Would you hope to ski? Someone needs to be available to pick up if they get unhappy and entertain them.

I've done this, because DH is a mad keen skier and wanted the DC to start as young as possible.

A few points:

• most ski schools don't accept u3s. But if you can find skis small enough, you can mess around on the nursery slopes with them yourself.
• you will need an adult around in case DC need picking up from ski school (had a bump, just hating it that day, too tired and not coping) which means probably taking it in turns to sit in a cafe near the nursery slopes
• there may well be snow kindergarten or other childcare in the resort. As we were in Switzerland, I was happy to use it as the standards there are very high. Others may differ.
• You need to see what else there is to do in the resort in case the DC isn't ready for it (counterproductive to make them go at this age if they don't like it) and for half the day anyhow - DC will be tired after a morning in ski school and probably won't want to go out again (aside from one run with parents to show off), so is there a pool, leisure centre, skating rink etc?

So as you're with family, who may well be happy to take turns in being the adult in charge when the DC aren't skiing, then yes I'd go for it.

I’m taking my 2.5 year old in a couple of weeks. No idea what to expect really.

I’ve put them in a crèche. It was easy enough to book (outside of school holidays). They are at a nursery at home so should be able to adapt to this easily.

I think I’ll leave them there until after lunch, then pick them up and go do something together - I will try skis I think, and if they aren’t managing we can sledge or similar instead. I’ve found some slopes with a magic carpet, which should be easier than lifts for them.

This means we get some skiing, but we also get to spend time together.

At 4 just put them in the ski school. I did this as a kid and was fine.

Our son skied for the first time when he was just 4 and loved it. We went with a company that provided childcare in the afternoon which was perfect - he did ski school in the morning, then was fed lunch and did lots of playing in the afternoon while we (and his big sister) skied. I would've thought 2.5 is too young for skiing, but might have a whale of a time sledging/building snowmen etc.

I think the question for you is how will you fit into the wider group? Presumably you won't be going to something specifically set up for families with integrated childcare etc. So is there childcare available, would your kids be happy in it, and if no to either of those, who's going to be looking after them? It's an expensive holiday if one of you is always going to be on childcare duties.

I took my two at exactly the same age. They are now all keen skiers as teenagers, along with subsequent siblings. We go most years and they go on school ski trips some years as well.

It definitely can be done but requires a bit of planning and probably a specialist family ski provider with nannies, childcare etc. Wheras now we book independently and just rock up. When they were that age we used Ski Famille and put 4y old in ski school in mornings while we skied, younger one with the childcare and then all messing about on nursery slopes in the afternoon. We've also done similar packages with Crystal. You pay more but you need the childcare. Once we had three and older 2 confidently in ski school and skiing with us in aftrrnoon we also used a really nice creche for the little one in Les Alpes 1950 in the town. No idea if its still there. Friends have used ski nannies.

As others have said, you need to be prepared to rush back and pick them up and stay fairly near, but with a large grpup that would probably be easy to do. Some packages take them into childcare in the aftrrnoon as well after ski school so you can ski most of the day.

Your enemy will be the cold and if memory serves with my middle one, who really feels the cold, being warm was conducive to happy to go to ski school versus much whinging in the morning. So invest in warm suits, good gloves etc. There's also much faffing in the morning getting all the layers on so its not particularly relaxing at that age, but again, with a large family group,you should get hel0 and breaks.

4 is realistically the youngest for actual skiing at ski school ime - under that it was sledging, mucking about in the snow etc for all of mine.

I’ve nothing against taking a 4 and 2.5 year old skiing (would advise a company with good childcare) but I’m not sure how many memories will be made with PIL tbh.

The kids will be in ski school or creche all day while PIL ski I imagine, And they presumably go to bed quite early (they certainly will if skiing, it’s tiring!) So realistically they will only see PIL for a couple of hours a day between skiing and bedtime and that includes kids tea and everyone getting bathed and changed. Unless PIL are going to ditch some of their ski time to see more of their GC?

Yes. Ski famille and mark warner both offer amazing holidays with childcare so you all have a good time

Other brands also offer similar great deals with childcare.

Random hotel or house share - no. Would be hell.

Thanks very much for all the replies. The hotel has already been decided for the main group. It is the same hotel they stayed in last Christmas so might not be that child oriented. There are other children but youngest is 7yrs old. It does have a pool. I’ll definitely do some research into the hotel and resort before we decide. Appreciate the advice.

MIL doesn’t ski at all and loves looking after the kids but I would like her to have plenty of free time to read etc but she probably would take the kids sometimes. Me and dh can take the kids the rest of the time. Realise we might feel a bit isolated from the rest of the group. We’ll have to tag team.

My youngest really feels the cold as he doesn’t have much body fat, so I think he won’t be outside very much.

It really depends on the resort you stay at. I think most ski schools only offer lessons starting from 4 years old so ideally you'd want a resort that has a baby club.

My kids actually love going on holiday with my parents because my father is really great at playing with them. It works out well for us because on some days my parents will be tired after the morning activities and they'll offer to watch the kids for us whilst we go on a more physically demanding activity (or boring) in the afternoon. We just went away together again last Dec and my kids are already asking when will be the next time!

I'm sure it will be fine. When my dc were tiny our local resort had a parent swop scheme where we could share a lift pass and equipment (just renting an extra pair of boots for ease) and we took turns. The dc played in the snow

I said YANBU but was going to follow that up by suggesting that you have sole occupancy of a catered chalet with childcare with a company such as Family Ski Company or Ski Famille.

Hotels with young kids are hard work. Will they offer early supper for the dc? Will one of you end up sitting in a darkened room every evening? Will you fly or drive? How long is the transfer if you’re flying? How close is it to the slopes?

we had some great ski holidays when ours were around those ages, but they were all with Family Ski Company who I highly recommend.

We first took our kids on a ski holiday when they were similar ages and they absolutely loved it!

We always went with the big companies like Crystal and esprit and used their childcare. There was one year where Crystal messed up and they had to hire us an external private nanny which worked quite well. Maybe you could do that?

We did this, my mum came along and took care of the little one. They both loved it, it was a wonderful bonding experience for them. Ds1 also enjoyed spending time with my mum, he still remembers making a snowman with her, and dragging ds2 in the sled. The fact that little ones are cold sensitive is irrelevant if you dress them appropriately.

I highly recommend it. Snow is wonderful for little ones. Yes, it's hard work getting them all kitted up on a regular basis, but their delight is worth it.

We've just gotten back with a 4 year old and 18m old,

We needed all day childcare for the 18m old realistically otherwise we didn't get any skiing in. The GPs helped out but didn't want to have him all day understandably.

Our 4 year old LOVED the skiing and actually got quite good in ski school BUT wasn't happy to be left there, he wanted us to stay.

It was a different holiday for us all, and quite a lot of faff tbh with all the layers they have to wear and they were both exhausted but I think it was worth it, just worth a plan around who will look after your youngest

We always hire a nanny in resort. If it’s one of the big French resorts and you’d be interested I can recommend the company. 4 year old to ski school, the nanny has the 2YO all morning, they do loads of fun stuff like visit the farm, soft play, sledging, you get a lovely morning skiing and then she delivers them to the restaurant where you’re all meeting for lunch. If the 4YO doesn’t take to ski school for whatever reason either then the nanny can have them too. Then afternoons you have the hotel pool, extra pair of hands in MIL, non ski activities. We find it works perfectly!

I’d always go chalet over hotel with little kids though as they’ll do an early kids tea and then they go to bed and you can stay up. IDK if it’s already booked and if there’s any chance of changing the group’s mind but it’s not going to be much of a holiday for you if it ends up with you guys eating by yourselves at 6pm then sitting in a dark room with the kids asleep whilst everyone else is having drinks in the bar followed by a leisurely group dinner.