Labeling your children 😅

[twinnies1987]

Hi all, we’re going to have a 5yo and 3yo in ski school. I’m thinking they should have something with all their information, my contact details etc? On a card? Lanyard? Any advice? 🤷‍♀️

Secondly, has anyone Airtagged their kids? Sounds a bit nuts but I’m also quite tempted 😅😅 Again, any advice gratefully received

THANK YOU

Where I've worked the ski schools provide bibs with card pockets, and parents write their details on the card. The instructors might also have their own cards that they give to the parents with their details on.

The 5 year old might get out onto the mountain with the instructor, but the 3 year old will almost certainly not venture much further than the "Kinderland" kids play area.

As a former instructor, can I ask that you remember to tell the instructor about any medical, allergy or other issues that your children have, and also check every morning that the children have their lift passes with them. There's nothing like standing for half an hour in a lift queue with 8 excited kids only to find when you get to the ticket barrier that little Johnny has changed jackets from the day before and doesn't have his lift ticket.

We put a piece of card in the jacket pocket.

We used to put contact details on piece of card in an inside pocket. Not the same pocket as the snacks in case it fell out.

They'll have bibs on to identify they are in ski school so if they get separated from their group, another instructor will notice. As another poster says, the 3 year old is unlikely to make it out of Piou Piou club (or equivalent) area. The 5 year old probably will in second half of week. I wouldn't let my kids at that age go out of my sight on our quite cul-de-sac so when my 5 year old regaled me with stories about all the lifts he went on (with random strangers) it was quite nerve wracking. Brilliant for their independence though

What they all said, but also if you’re a bit paranoid (🙋‍♀️) you can write your phone number on their arm in sharpie.

As above, we always did - plus we drilled our phone numbers into them from about 5/6 just in case!

and @PickleSarnie many's the time I've sat next to a littlie on a lift with the instructor several lifts behind! You can have some very entertaining conversations that way!

Until mine were old enough to remember my number and have their own phones quite honestly I used to tag them with plastic wrist bands you write your phone number on, I bought a pack of 100 and it lasted their childhood, even used them at 10/11/12 at festivals. Definitely recommend this approach

Oh gosh that brings back memories of frequently riding chair lifts with a solo young child. I recall one resort where the ski schools put one child on each chair with 2-3-4 random adults all the time. Assume it’s fairly normal

Mine have a sticker inside their helmets with contact details. It came with the helmet so I thought why not fill it out! I also do airtag them, not because I think the ski school will lose them (we avoid ESF!) but mostly so we can sit in the bar opposite the pick up point with an aperol spritz and see when they’re heading down and be ready to go.

Ski school is mad in a way. Can't think of anywhere else you would put a couple of 4yos somewhere with with 4 strange adults and then expect those adults to make sure they are safe.
But its safer then sending 6 4yos off on a chair lift alone.

I was always so impressed in how those instructors never lost one.

We would always put our phone number in their pockets or in the same sleeve pocket as their ski pass. Make sure the ski pass is somewhere that it will work easily at the gate without them needed to get it out.
Just a word of warning - talk to them about needing the toilet. I had a couple of incidences of mine both having accidents when in their lessons. And DC telling me about having a wee on the side of the piste! - both boys.
Also if they get lost from their group - happened to my son once - they should ski to a lift and speak to the lift assistant. Or find a mummy and ask for help.
i would imagine your 3 year old will only be on the bunny slopes. But ask. Could be worth putting them both in pull ups.
The air tagging is quote a good idea. We lost our 5 year old when skiing once.

Just back from most recent ski trip in France. My kids are older now and have phones, but I would say an AirTag doesn’t give a reliable connection and you certainly wouldn’t be able to use it to locate which run / lift your child is at (it’s not mapped to a ski resort map!). Writing down your mobile number and putting it in a pocket etc is probably best. On our recent trip, we got separated from my 12 YO, whose phone was out of battery, and she knew my mobile off by heart so just asked a kindly person to borrow their phone to call her mum. I’ve been approached by a very young child in tears in the past (about 5) who asked me to use my phone to call her parent - she had the number in her pocket.

It's the only way that the instructors can get all of the kids to the top - they themselves can only ride with one or two kids, so the others have to ride with random adults. At high season the instructors might have as many as 10 kids in the group. It's perfectly normal across Europe and Canada - the lifties and instructors organise it (where I ski there is a separate queue for the ski school kids) and the adult skiers are generally well-versed in what is expected of them.

Another tip - as well as parents' contact details on the card, write down the language that the child speaks. There's nothing like trying to comfort a crying child and needing to work out which language they actually understand.

Yes, ours always had our contact numbers in their pocket, along with a copy of their insurance and GHIC cards, a snack and €10.

Yes I remember seperate lines of kids and one was popped onto each chair as it went past. I’d just totally forgotten about it. Some of them were tiny

We have phone numbers stuck on their helmets for the last few years in case of any emergencies.

At ski school they will be wearing bibs and have a wallet with their details on their arms (well in ski school in Austria anyway). My son got lost at ski school once and we got a phone call from an adult that found him on the piste. The groups had been mixed as end of the day and the ski school hadn't noticed! It got extremely complicated with collecting him as we were in a totally different area and the ski school group was just around the corner. I had the woman who found me constantly calling asking where we were and the ski school who I alarmed straight away also on the lookout for him.

However my experience in all of that would be that any adult that finds a child lost from ski school on the slopes with a ski school bib on take them to the nearest lift or flag down an instructor from any ski school as likely is they all have each other's contact details and could work out where the child needs to be. You don't need to contact parents straight away if they've lost their ski school group just make sure they are with either ski school or lift staff.