A few weeks ago my friend, Renee, came into town with her family for a long weekend. We thought it would be fun to take the kids skiing while they were here. It has been a record year for snow and the slopes are amazing and we hadn't even taken the kids out this year. The girls I understand, but not even Andy who got a free ski pass this year just for being in the 5th grade. So, I signed all three kids up for ski lessons and we went to a small, but nice, mountain just north of Boulder.
Let me first start by saying that Charlie took Andy skiing, well really Andy snowboards, at least 3-4 times last year. Andy is not thrilled by snowboarding, but we keep making him go back. His problem is that he doesn't like to do anything that he's not good at, and he won't even really give it a try. It drives us bonkers, and is the reason that the kids still doesn't 100% know how to ride a bike at 11 years old. You could say that we are making him learn because it's something that we would have loved to have learned when we were his age and we are living vicariously through him. Or we are making him learn because we know for a fact when he gets older he is going to be so mad at us if we don't make him learn. Either way I think we end up looking bad. Andy really doesn't like to go, but we don't care and we make him go anyway. The girls, on the other hand, have never gone and keep saying that they want to go, so it was really time to give them a chance.
So, here's how it went down. We put all three kids in lessons around 9a. They were all-day lessons so we weren't supposed to pick them up until 3p. In the meantime, Renee and our other friend, Marilyn, and I went to the lodge and Marilyn taught us how to knit, at which by the way I am terrible. I think I have major knitters block. Maybe that's how Andy feels about snowboarding. Anyway, right after lunch, around 1p I got a call asking me to come pick up Amanda because she refused to ski anymore. I went and got her and she said she didn't like it because they wouldn't give her poles and nobody would hold her hand and the hill was scary. First of all, they don't give any of the kids poles until they are so incredibly old. Poles only add to the confusion and slow you down. Second, why would anybody hold her hand while skiing? Third, the hill was the tamest barely a hill you have ever seen. Weak.
I took her to the lodge to hang out with the rest of us and refused to give her candy because quitters don't get candy. Seriously, what kind of a lesson would that be if I gave her candy while she waited for everybody else to finish? As soon as I quit, even if the day isn't over, I get candy. I don't think so. Meanwhile, Charlie went to pick Andy up after lunch and pulled him out of his lesson so that they could ski and snowboard together. Since Andy wasn't excited about the lesson we thought that would be a good compromise and make him a little happier. Except he fell and didn't want to snowboard anymore so around 2p Charlie called me to go get Andy so Charlie could ski a little bit more. Now I had two kids in the lodge with me wanting snacks. Never.
Guess who stayed in her entire lesson and even though it was hard wants to go back for more? That's right, Sarah. If you had asked me at the beginning of the day who would have been the first to quit, I probably would have guessed her. But she was a total trooper and stuck it out and spent the entire day out there. She still has a long way to go, but she did not give up. I am so proud of her. And so annoyed with the other two.
I know Charlie has been chomping at the bit to ski and Sarah wants to go back out so they are going again this weekend. We are making Andy go again as well, even though at one point he said he would rather stay here and help me remove wallpaper from the bathroom wall than go snowboarding. Mark my words someday that kid will thank us for all the stuff we refused to let him quit. Either that or he will be in therapy trying to get over the fact that we forced him into all these activities that he didn't want to do. And because he doesn't know how to ride a bicycle.
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