Taking the kids, what age

A snowHead

I started at 18 years old and i feel i have seriously missed out! Dont know if i would like my kids going before they are about 7-8 thou.

(this comes from a 21 year old.... lacking kids)

A snowHead

scrubyjoe, hey stop bitching - I started at 27! Toofy Grin

(I'm sure someone's going to "trump" me any minute...!)

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Avago,

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russ_e, I don't have kids, but I do have a lot of friends and colleagues who do and this subject came up in conversation at a recent work social do.

The consistent themes seem to be:

Don't project yourself onto your kids. You love skiing and your kids will undoubtedly love skiing, but don't be in too much of a rush to get them on skis otherwise you could end up with the child totally hating the experience. I know someone who got themselves in this position and they still regret it.

Trust the professionals (including the creches) as they've got more experience in this stuff than you have. Both the French and Canadians seem to have a similar approach to introducing very young children to snowsports - that is to emphasise the kids being comfortable with, and enjoying playing in, the snow before worrying about anything to do with sliding or skiing.

Don't be afraid to not go when the kids are young. Some of my work colleagues took the approach of not skiing when the kids were young - they make the observation that their kids learned at 6 or 7; enjoy it; are still better than them and don't seem at all deprived.

For kids who don't grow up in a ski resort then 4 or 5 seems to be the youngest age when you can sensibly expect a child to ski sufficiently long and well enough for you to do it with them. I was skiing with geetee jr last year and, at 4, she was only just about big enough to sensibly have on a chairlift. She was certainly too young to deal with even a child/beginner friendly drag - although we did take her up the gentlist of gentle drags successfully. But only with great caution.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Jonny Jones,

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Hurtle, Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. snowHead

scrubyjoe, Cool

After all it is free

We started my son on skis at 2 and a half and he loved it. We didn't go the creche route for the above reasons, and because we had a very bad experience the year before with Esprit. Last year our chalet company booked us a private nanny by the hour, so she brought him up on the bubble to meet us so we could play around with him for a couple of hours and then took him home again, so we got to ski a bit more in the afternoon. It was the best of both worlds because he enjoyed learning with us, but we still got to do some serious skiing. We felt he was too young to be taught be a stranger, but because he knew the nanny well she was able to teach him a bit as well which was perfect. Plus because it was by the hour it worked out much cheaper than the creche route. The one we had was from a co called Alpine Child Care, but I guess every resort has private nannies. Your chalet should be able to sort it out for you.

Jonny Jones, As an impartial observer and soon to be dad I find your views a bit extreme. Obviously having kids is a life changing experience and will involve compromises along the way, but I won't be giving up any of my precious skiing time in the process Smile

You might be confused, but I certainly don't want to spend 100% of my free time with my baby. A bit of time out seems healthy to me, even if you can't get your head around it yourself.

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rambotion, but only if they are continent.......

really....

unless you want to change them out of wet and smelly fartbags into another- freshly laundered pair...

lots of requirements before kids go skiing;

continence
can be left with strangers without emotional disintergration
parents can leave kids without emotional disintergration
can stand still
listen to man speaking in funny voice and do what told
remember which pocket snack is in
continence (very important this)

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I got shouted at on a different thread (the one about the kid smashing into the father) and I'm a little reticent - but I'm trying to still get involved with this site - about posting my thoughts. Here goes. I skied for the first time at fourteen. I was unsure, for all and more of the reasons given above, about how and when to introduce my children to skiing and to see if they liked it. So off we went to our local dry slope. Daughter was eight and son four. Like many youngsters with sports, they took to it like ducks to water and have never looked back. She has raced as part of a team and individually on dry slopes in this country and worked a season in NZ and he is the biggest powder hound in the world. For us UK residents, skiing on snow is a well and hard earned prize and I cannot recommend too highly getting our kids involved with a local ski club from a very early age. They learn about so much, get to know if they like it and when the real thing happens for them they aren't so fazed.

snow reports

Aneira, don't worry about the shouting, no-one means it.

Whatever age, just take them. What they do whilst there is what you should be discussing. Depending on age, you can look after them yourselves (in turn), put them in creche/ski school, have a nanny/babysitter in - whatever you want really.

With son#1, we continued with our normal pattern of ski trips and did all the above - and he's find and absolutely loves his skiing. Son#2 wasn't quite so easy - he arrived in the middle of the ski season, so mum's ski trips were curtailed that year - and he loves his skiing too.

There is no reason whatsoever that kids should stop you going on ski holidays. Would you think it unusual if kids stopped someone going on beach holidays? [All that UV - bad for the kids!]

You know it makes sense.

richmond,
Thank you Smile

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

As stated it is down to the individual child - my daughter started when she was 4, and to be honest it was a year too early. At 5 she loved it and has never looked back. We took my our son at 3 1/2 - convinced ourselves that as he is a boy he will take to it at an earlier age - quite the opposite to be honest!! So the next year he went to the grandparents for a "special" holiday and we went skiing! Very Happy

Didn't go last year due to work commitments, so this year - off to Meribel on Sunday, can't wait!! - will be his first time. I managed to take him to xscape in Milton Keynes for a 1 hour lesson - just to find out if he liked... thankfully he loved it, and cannot wait to go - what a relief!

A snowHead

[quote="RobW"]Whatever age, just take them. What they do whilst there is what you should be discussing. quote]

Absolutely! I've been taking my boy to the mountains since he was two months old. He's been a couple of times a season and he's 2 now. At Xmas he'd just gone 2, I didn't get much skiing/boarding in (first lift run in the morning, last lift run evening when someone wouldn't mind watching him for half hour) BUT he had the BEST time. We played in the snow all week, went sledging every day, he pottered around in the playpark on his plastic skis, we built snow men, we rode up and down the "bubble lift" endless times a day (he was a bit obsessed with it!), he drank hot chocolates and ate pizza and ice cream. He helped the chalet staff shovel snow and had a ride in a piste basher and I didn't once see him without a smile all over his face! I'm looking forward to getting him out again this season, he asks when we're going all the time! and when I think he's ready he'll be on skis...not before! but when that is depends on the individual child. A child being too young to ski is no reason not to take them to the mountains and enjoy your skiing holiday and have brilliant fun!

I honestly don't understand why people think it's wrong to take young children on this kind of holiday! It's fabulous fun, they love it!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

A ski school boss once told me that, "on average", the age that a kid doing 1 week a season could put up with 5-6 mornings in ski school was 6

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Joanne Mountainsun, agreed. Skiing is quickly becomin a luxury. You say in your post that

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Joanne Mountainsun, I think what your saying is that there is no definitve or fixed answer, and I couldn't agree more. Most options have there good points Very Happy

After all it is free

I see Jonny Jones' point of view and share it to a certain extent.

We took our youngest from when she was 14 months , once or twice a season. We tried creches etc but were never happy so we alternated care morning and afternoon . For about 4 seasons we never skied together but as we were in a big group that was not too bad.

Most importantly of all she was well looked after . As a dad it was fun , at times frustrating , but it meant we all ( including her sister who is 6 years older ) kept going as a family. Friends thought we were mad , and that we should have put her in a nursery .

I think whatever suits the family . For us , it was her holiday too and we were happy .

John[/b]

alltnaha, said:

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Frosty the Snowman, Yes, thank you! That is what I was trying to say in far too many words!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

johnnyh, People only get argumentative when your "view" turns into some sort of judgement about parenting or selfishness. The other chap comes across like he's having a bit of a self righteous go at parents who don't share his "view" of how to deal with kids and ski hols. You seem to be slightly disapproving too at the end of your post.

snow reports

Just returned from pielette's 3rd trip to the mountains. She had her 2nd birthday over there.

First one - age 11 weeks, with grandparents in tow. Worked out ok for everyone, we managed to get some skiing done, show the grandparents why we have such a passion for the hills and give them a chance to spend some time with their grand-daughter without fussy parents telling them how to change a nappy!

Second one - self drive trip to Italy, with company called Ski2. Excellent childcare in a creche, where they took them out at least twice a day. We spent a few half days with pielette - some with plastic skis that strap onto her feet for a few runs (only about 3 runs on a very small nursery slope before she got tired - approx 30mins), or else just messing about in the snow. Kids tea was at appropriate hour, before she was exhausted, but could be just about anything you could think of (including gnocchi)

This year - Espirit holiday. Only a couple of weeks after we had escaped for a few days leaving her with Nanna and Grandad. They did a brilliant job of getting her REALLY excited about the snow, so all she wanted to get out in it - any snow related activity was fine with her. This meant that she wasn't very bothered about the creche (spends lots of time in nursery at home anyway, and hasn't quite realised the value of friends yet). They also didn't manage to get them outside as much as we thought they might (once a day or not at all). She really couldn't get enough of the numerous half days we spent with her (leaving her at creche to sleep away most of the afternoon). She seemed to love the skiing (and sitting on the chairlift), again on the tie on plastic skis, and managed about 1 hour before asking for "hot chocolate please"

We have had lots advice about skiing with kids, from experienced people who live in the mountatins the whole time -some have recommended that tiny kids aren't able to hold their weight appropriately over their skis until they are at least 5 (just look at all the tiny tots on skis who are just hanging in the back of their boots). This could risk them learning bad habits from the beginning. Mind you if you live in the hills I guess their kids will get all the time in the world to perfect their technique.

The tie on plastic skis, were just to give pielette a taster of having a pair of planks attached to her feet, rather than actually get her skiing. We have been advised that until they can fit into a rigid boot that we shouldn't let go of her. The smallest ski boot we can find is European size 26 (UK size eight). Pielette is only a size 22(UK 5), so I guess we'll be waiting til her feet grow a bit before we can post any video like Avago

Help!!

Taking the kids, what age

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