Tag: skiing

You All Sick? Have Kids Who Won’t Sleep? Solution: Wake Up Too Early and Get Active

Its winter. Its the sick season. Its the perfect time not to have kids. Its also the perfect time to lose some sleep, get up and out way too early, and exercise.

I had been struggling with a sore throat a few days ago, so my sleep was precious. Very precious. My three-year-old tried to steal if from me, and I wasn’t going to have it. When she came up to my bedroom in the middle of the night, too cold to sleep any longer because she refused to wear warm pajamas a few hours earlier, I firmly and angrily put her back into bed. Twice. And that was all it took. My stubborn determination to get her and myself back to bed for the sake of more sleep was so intense that I had completely woken myself up beyond repair—and then I steamed for the next four hours, fuming in and out of dreams. I didn’t find any more deep and true sleep that night, and the last thing I wanted to do when I woke up was go exercise. I didn’t. Today, a few days later, that night has taken its toll, and I am much sicker than I was.

Kids and sleep. I can’t get enough of either of them! Having kids makes getting good sleep even more crucial, but funny, perhaps the best way to get active alone time when you have kids is by waking up unhealthily early, long before kids beat you to it. I haven’t mastered this yet—and may never do so—but sweating through the hour or two of the early and remarkable transformation from cold darkness to warm light is where it’s at. This is the best exercise time, for many reasons, in my opinion.

In promoting early morning kid-free exercise to parents of young kids, I’m making at least a few assumptions. The first is that you a have a partner who will be there at home if the kids wake up while you’re gone—or a child old enough to hold down the fort while you are out. I’ve heard that Child Protective Services will get involved if you leave young kids at home alone. And unfortunately, their involvement is not some friendly babysitting until you get home. The second of at least a few assumptions is that your kids don’t consider 5 a.m. to be the appropriate time to wake. Regularly. And stay awake. Another similar assumption is that you didn’t battle a child, the child’s sickness, or both all night long, leaving you with little or no sleep.

Early morning exercise may not be possible for you, but if you can pull it off, cherish the early mornings. And try to make a habit of it. This morning, long before my kids were awake, and long before my sickness went away, I did the opposite of what doctor’s would probably recommend. I found myself in two inches of fresh snow, running/walking three miles up a canyon trail with a sled that held my skis and boots. (I’m working on gathering the funds and spousal approval for touring gear.) I was cold and sweaty and in love with life. After my ascent, skiing down the canyon trail long before the ski resorts opened made be feel alive and well.

Maybe I am wrong, but I believe that—somehow—waking up well before my sick body has given approval is maybe the apple a day that keeps the doctor away. Doing exactly the opposite of what my mother taught me to do to combat sickness (sleep in and take it easy) sometimes seems to be the remedy.

And sometimes, like today, pulling a stunt like this makes the first several hours of work feel hellish. Although I loved my early morning stunt, my sick body’s battery had been spent, and I was so tired I thought I’d have to pull the rip cord and parachute my way back home from work and get better acquainted with my bed. But I managed to work a full day, and when I came home, my wife left me with all four of my kids (it was a girl’s night out), which should have been the final ingredient for a disaster. But something quite remarkable happened. Although I felt pretty crummy, I was fun and warm and lovely with my kids. I was the opposite of the beast that met my three-year-old in the middle of the night a couple days back. My kids all went to bed happy tonight, and I’m happy—and about to cough up some strange winter phlegm. (Yes, TMI). Usually when I’m sick, and often when I am perfectly healthy, attempting to calmly put four kids to bed feels like trying to convince my parents that the Democrat party is not pure evil—a very frustrating and futile process. But tonight, despite my sickness and my early morning (and perhaps because of my early morning), there is a lot of love in this house. This feeling at home is especially amazing since my wife (the more loving and kind parent) isn’t even back from her girl’s night out yet.

Taking time to be active each day, especially early and especially in nature, is an investment in being a good parent, at least for me. So, while it seems counter-intuitive, I’m going to strive to get less sleep (or rather go to bed earlier) so that I can spend more time in the bitter cold outdoors this winter, all for the goal of being a happier parent.

How do you manage morning exercise with kids?

10 Tips for Skiing with Your Kids

“Dad, I gotta go to the bathroom!!!” I hear that all the time when I take my kids places, but I especially love it when we are skiing. Each time this call comes, I wonder if I am skilled enough to navigate through seven layers of clothing so the kiddo can relieve himself on a pine tree before his bladder explodes. I’m generally successful—and I say generally because most of the urine ends up in the snow. This time, however, we were just yards away from the lodge, so I decided to do something unconventional while skiing: use a bathroom. We plowed to a stop in front of the lodge in what I thought was quick enough speed, but my oldest announced: “I wet my pants.” The snow below his left leg began to yellow. We had only been there a bit over an hour. “Well, let’s go home.” This was a typical experience on a ski day with my kids.

I have four kids, and I’ve skied with the oldest two for about three years now, and I’ve taken the three oldest—ages eight, six, and four—skiing almost every week this past ski season, and I’ve left Brighton Ski Resort (kids ski free there) in the Salt Lake City, Utah area on more than one of these occasions angrier than I like to admit, and a few times we’ve left extremely happy, but most of the time we leave cold and tired, somewhere between content and annoyed. But it is an investment for me, and I believe that good, wholesome recreational activities are valuable for building a happy family, and if I can get them hooked on skiing as kids, we’ll love skiing together in the decades to come. 

I have a little sample size of one dad with three kids (my wife stays home with our two-year-old girl for now), but I’d like to share a few “dos and don’ts” of skiing with kids.

DO #1 (and the most important of all): Make it fun!

Kids are kids, and if skiing isn’t fun, they aren’t going to like it, and they won’t want to go. (What I novel thought, right?) Games I have made up on the fly have been very helpful. My oldest, an eight-year-old likes to play hide and seek. He skis ahead and my second oldest, a six-year-old, and I spy for him. If we spy him in behind the tree branches or snow bank, we get a point. If we don’t, he does. (Yes, I have wondered if I have lost him a few times, but he loves it.) To motivate my six-year-old to learn to turn, I played tag with him. I stick my poles behind me and make big turns, telling him that if he can touch my poles 10 times, he wins. He loves it. I doubt these games will work for every kid, and obviously games don’t need to be based on scoring points, but whatever you do and however you ski, make it fun.

DO #2 (and a prerequisite to DO #1): Keep your kids warm and comfortable.

I’ve often heard people say about the home: “If Mamma aint happy, aint nobody happy.” Kids, not Mamma, rule the ski slopes. “If even one kiddos aint happy, anit nobody happy.” And the quickest way to lose happiness is to the cold. I load as many layers on my kids as possible. The more layers the better, I have found—as long as they can still bend a few key joints. I started carrying a backpack for shedding layers, but I rarely use it. When by myself, I ski hard and generate body heat. Even if I am cold on the way up the lift, I warm right up on the way down the hill. Not so with kids—at least not mine. They are small and have less body heat (yes, I am good at pointing out the obvious), and they don’t get warmer on the workout down the mountain. They just mosey downhill all day, perpetually losing body heat unless properly insulated. I’ve never heard them complaint about sore legs from working moguls, but they will certainly let you know if they are at all cold (and I’ve heard complaints about pretty much everything else too, of course). One time I didn’t realize how few layers my kid put on (be careful about letting them dress themselves), and not only did it completely ruin our day, but eight-year-old actually froze up so well that he failed to get off a lift. He was on my left, and as we exited the lift, my focus was on my four-year-old kid to the right. When we settle after the exit, my eight-year-old had disappeared. I found him twenty yard back behind, downhill, laying dazed and confused in his hypothermia. He had aborted the chairlift when the ground was just a few feet beneath him, before it got too dangerous. (I’m not sure how emergency protocol didn’t stop the lift first.)

DO #3: Ski often and for short periods of time.

If possible, get a season pass and use it frequently but only for a few hours at a time. If you are like me and don’t have hundreds of dollars to blow on skiing each weekend, and you put all your hopes in a full, fun day with your kids on the slopes, not purchasing a season pass, you will probably pay a few hundred dollars that will only make you more invested in sticking it out to the end, further ensuring disaster. From my experience, kids only generally enjoy skiing for up to a couple hours or so, not a full six or seven hours of skiing. You can extend this time with breaks and creative and encouraging tactics, but even the adults I ski with don’t like trudging through a full day of skiing. If you have spent a few hundred dollars on this occasion day with your kids, you’ll likely want to push through your kids’ cold fingers, tired bodies, disinterest, or whatever it may be. You’ve spent so much on one of a few ski days that legitimate reasons to slow down or call it quits won’t persuade you, and your kids will likely start to hate skiing. Conversely, if you ski a kid portion day, they’ll likely grow into the ski bum you are looking for. The chances will be much higher that the cold, a fall, or some other bump along the road (or ski run) won’t phase them. 

DO #4: Use incentives and heavy encouragement. 

I bring a bag of candy with me that I pull out of my backpack on the way up each lift. If my kids have been positive and happy on the way down the slope, they expect the reward of—and I provide—a piece of candy of their choice on the way back up. This is sometimes the funnest part of the day for them, which is not surprising given the fact that they are kids. Whatever motivates your kids—whether it is candy, words of affirmation, money (I don’t especially like this one), etc., use it. 

DO #5: Ski with other kids and supportive adults.

Kids love being with other kids, and I have found that the level of my kids’ whining during certain activities decreases if they are with kids of their same age. For example, my kids don’t ask to go hiking and sometimes find reasons to complain when we get them onto short trails, but they rarely complain when we are hiking with friends who have kids of the same age. The same is true with skiing, I have found. I have almost exclusively skied without other families, but when I managed late last season to coordinate a ski day with my friend and his kids of similar ages, my kids were instantly more excited, more positive, more inclined to get lost in the social excitement, more willing to show off their skiing abilities, and overall more excited about the whole ski trip. I suspect that kids would thrive in ski school for this reason, but I have not been able to get myself to pay the extra cost for ski school (something I’ll likely invest in this next season).

Having other supportive adults around, if possible, is also huge. I almost always ski alone, but when my friend’s kid’s ski fell off while going up a lift, it was much easier to get back down the hill with me carrying the one-ski child and him managing the rest. Also, if one child needs to take a bathroom stop, another adult can wait outside with the remaining kiddos. So if possible, ski with your spouse or partner or make sacrifices to coordinate a ski day with friends. 

This next year, I managed to entice my wife into buying a ski pass so she could ski with the kids too, something she has not really thought of as a fun weekly activity (and she is right quite often—skiing with kids can be miserable). I would still ski without her (and she loves the breaks when I take the kids without her, and I’ll still likely ski without her help quite a bit), but I am pumped to have the extra help—and my more compassionate half—to ensure that our ski days run smoother and are more exciting. 

DO #6: Stay positive.

This is really just another way of stating DO #1, making the day fun and positive. Kids thrive off of your energy, whatever it may be. If you are happy and supportive despite the challenges of the ski day, your kids will more likely find success and enjoyment in skiing.

DO #7: Don’t get angry!

Like DO #6, this is simply another way of telling you to make skiing with your children fun. If you get angry, the day will be anything but fun or exciting. Don’t get angry, no matter what you do. I personally know the dangers and consequences of getting angry, because—I regretfully admit—I have too often lost my cool while skiing with my children. These days have been somewhat disastrous, and they have put skiing at risk of becoming an entirely negative experience for my kids.

DO #8: Keep your kids warm and comfortable. 

This DO #2 repeated verbatim, and it is really just a prerequisite of ensuring that you accomplish DO #1 and make the day fun. I repeat this requisite for emphasis. If your kids get cold, they will not have fun, and the day will be a disaster. If you need to take hot chocolate breaks after every run down the hill, do it. Do whatever it takes to keep those little bodies warm. 

DO #9: Make it fun!

This is DO #1 repeated verbatim for emphasis (and the essence of DO #6, DO #7, and DO #8). If all else goes wrong, make the ski day with your kids fun. If your kids stink at skiing, somehow laugh. If your kid falls over on the easy runs and gets hurt or scared, either keep him or her happy there with whatever magic you can conjure as a parent or drop down to the bunny hill—or do whatever else it takes. Encourage your kid, support your kid, and make him or her feel special and loved. Make the ski day a fun and positive experience no matter what. Don’t put your needs or enjoyment before his, or neither of you will be happy.

DO #10: At all costs, make the day exciting and fun!

I will beat the dead horse deader. In case you don’t believe me on what the focus of skiing with kids should be, I am repeating DO #1 and DO #8 (which is the essence of all the the other DOs). Do anything and everything you can to ensure that your kids have a positive skiing experience. Put your kids first, sacrificing your own desires. Make sure they have fun, not you, and in the end (whether that day or when your kids are talented skiers), skiing with your kids will be incredible!

Summary: Keep your kids warm and comfortable, and do anything and everything to make each ski day exciting and fun, which is likely impossible unless your kids are warm and comfortable.