Tips for bringing a two year old...

[Nervous Nellie]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum so apologies if this topic has previously been discussed.

My husband and I go skiing every year. He is a very experienced boarder and I'm a fairly nervous skier (but love it at the same time).

We have a two week ski trip planned for this winter and will be bringing our daughter who will have just turned two at that time. We're from Ireland so will be heading to Ellmau in Austria.

Please can you give me tips for on and off the slopes regarding our little lady.

Many thanks.

 

[newboots]

Welcome, Nellie! I'm sure lots of the ski-parents here will have good ideas for you.

 

[Nervous Nellie]

Thanks Newboots.

I'm looking forward to joining in future discussions and hopefully receiving lots of great tips too...

 

[Jilly]

Welcome to our world. Are you thinking about day care so you both can ride/ski?

 

[Nervous Nellie]

Hi Jilly, although they do have wonderful day care facilities on the slopes, we'd rather keep her with us until she gets a big bigger and hardier.
We were planning on taking it in turns - one ski the morning and the other the afternoon. And we were hoping to maybe give her a little taste of the slopes too (although I'm not really sure how that would work).

 

[Jilly]

Are you in a hotel or apartment?

 

[mustski]

Welcome! My first piece of advice is to make time for some sledding which the three of you can enjoy together. The second is stay as close to the slopes as possible. She will get tired and bored doing nothing while you two switch off. The ability to switch at home allows for naps and play time. Unlike a baby, a toddler needs activity. I would definitely consider the day care which will include toys, other kids, and play time. Maybe not every day, but some of it for sure.

 

[Nervous Nellie]

Thanks for the tips Mustski. I love the sledding idea and know our little one will love it too... she's a bit of a adventure-baby
We'll have another think about the day care as you've raised some good points.
We're in an apartment Jilly. We thought it best for everyone if we have our own space.

 

[RachelV]

I'm sure @Kimmyt will have some good tips once she makes her way back to a computer after the weekend.

 

[marzNC]

Welcome, @Nervous Nellie ! How much snow has your daughter seen so far? Where I live, it might snow once a year and it's rarely enough even for sledding. When my daughter was little, just tromping around in snow was great fun. I learned to have a few pairs of gloves on hand so that I could change out to a dry pair. Was also very useful to have an electric glove/boot dryer.

First snow at aunt's house in Chicago during a Christmas visit. Snowsuit and boots were borrowed from a friend of my sister-in-law. Hat and gloves were a Christmas present.

 

[marzNC]

Thanks for the tips Mustski. I love the sledding idea and know our little one will love it too... she's a bit of a adventure-baby
We'll have another think about the day care as you've raised some good points.
We're in an apartment Jilly. We thought it best for everyone if we have our own space.

At large U.S. ski resorts, the day care often includes an hour or so of time on the snow. Not on skis for the youngest (ages 2-3) but just time to play in the snow. Definitely worth checking out your options. If your daughter is social, she may well enjoy a few hours with other kids around. I took my daughter to local drop-off daycare when she was a toddler and she had a great time. Didn't do it that often, but enough so that when we decided half-day pre-Kindergarten was worthwhile a few days a week, she was quite happy to go.

 

[newboots]

@marzNC - Amazing that girl is grown up and skiing now!

 

[Kimmyt]

Hi Jilly, although they do have wonderful day care facilities on the slopes, we'd rather keep her with us until she gets a big bigger and hardier.
We were planning on taking it in turns - one ski the morning and the other the afternoon. And we were hoping to maybe give her a little taste of the slopes too (although I'm not really sure how that would work).

I have a now 3yo and a 11mo and have been skiing regularly since they were all little.

Since you've narrowed down your preferences here are my tips.

If you haven't booked a rental, I would consider doing something ski in/out or at the very least close to the lifts. This enables you to 'waste' as little time as possible when you do the baby duty changover.

If you have the funds, I might consider doing a day of babysitter or nanny. I'm quite sure these are readily available at European resorts. Your acommodation management might be able to refer someone for you. This enables you to have a more personal care for your daughter while still getting some time with your husband. You could perhaps do a half day for your daughter with a caregiver and ski together and then in the afternoon you could all as a family get on the snow for some skiing or sledding or whatever your daughter might enjoy. If you are thinking of getting her to try skiing another way to do it is to do a shorter day of skiing and then meet up at the magic carpet for an hour or two as a family.

Generally for me and my husband, one person will ski in the morning. The other parent will take the children to do some sort of entertainment. Sledding, playing outside in the snow, going out to brunch, finding a playground, ice skating etc. Lunch at the condo. Then the second parent comes back and eats lunch while the kiddos watch a little tv or have a nap/quiet time. After that, the second parent can take the kiddos out for some more play or maybe bring them up to the ski resort to ride the gondola or watch the skiers and meet the skiing parent at the end of the day. We try and switch up who gets to ski mornings or evenings, unless one parent prefers one of the shifts over the other. Its also important to communicate with each other about powder days if you are blessed with them. We try and make sure that if there are multiple powder days that one person gets to enjoy the morning skiing one day and the other gets to enjoy the next. We also let each other know where on the mountain is skiing well so that we can find the goods as quickly as possible.

We mostly eat in the condo for ease with the kids, but we do try and go out for dinner maybe once just so we get a break from dishes and cleanup.

Good luck and let me know if you have any specific questions!

 

[marzNC]

@marzNC - Amazing that girl is grown up and skiing now!

Yep, time flies. She's in high school now. Became an advanced skier (Level 8 of 9) by age 12 thanks to annual spring break trips to Alta and ski school at Massanutten. Then changed over to telemark in middle school (North Country School in near Lake Placid, NY). Was good enough to ski High Rustler last March. Well worth the time spent keeping her company on greens and blues when she was getting started (ages 4-5).

Of course, harder to get good pics of a teenager. Got this one during an early season day last season. This was the first day using new Black Pearls. Bought the tele boots for the 2015-16 season when she was using leased tele skis.

 

[Nervous Nellie]

Hi everyone, thanks for the great tips that you've all been sending so far. Please keep them coming if you think of any others.
@marzNC ...love the pics! Your daughter looks and sounds like she has a great time on the skis. Fantastic to hear she's doing so well at it too. Especially as you live in a area that doesn't have much snow. Well done!
Living in Ireland we don't see that much snow so our daughter hasn't had chance to experience it yet. It'll be interesting (and fun I'm sure) to see what she makes of it. Great idea for the boot/glove dryer too.
@Kimmyt thanks for your tips. Your day sounds exactly like how we envisaged ours. Listening to everyone's great advice here we might look at a nanny or daycare again, but at the moment the first-time-parent-paranoia regarding people we don't know is still very much there .
It's really great to hear how you make your holiday work for yourself and your husband and we'll definitely take your advice on board with regard to switching and powder days. I hadn't even thought about playgrounds or iceskating so these are all great tips too.
Really appreciate everyone's advice. Starting to get very excited about it and we're still months off...hahaha!

 

[marzNC]

Listening to everyone's great advice here we might look at a nanny or daycare again, but at the moment the first-time-parent-paranoia regarding people we don't know is still very much there

Understandable. We did the nanny approach when my daughter was toddler during summer holidays in order to get in 18 holes of golf while at a resort vacation. Pricey but worked out pretty well for one day. However, having a friend or relative along as a babysitter was much better. By the time she was 4, switching off was fine. We went with a long time friend. I played 9 holes with him first thing in the morning, then my husband did the back 9.

For future reference, here are some thoughts from a few years ago about training aids for young kids under age 5. I started my daughter at age 4 with ski school. All she needed was an "edgie-wedgie" to hold her tips together for the first two days. After the second day of ski school (9:30-2:00), she was solid on turning and stopping while I skied with her and gave her directions.

https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/copilot-aids-for-very-young-kids.13773

 

[newboots]

I brought my daughter ice skating when she was 3 or 4. She discarded the double-blade skates in favor of sliding across the pond in her boots. Although I was dismayed, I shouldn't have been! She went on to play hockey for years which helped her get into a prep school. Sliding across the pond in her boots (and on her bum) was the perfect developmentally-appropriate precursor to learning to skate!

 

[Nervous Nellie]

Hahaha... love the iceskating story @newboots. I can just picture it. It's amazing how little dismays can actually turn out to be for the best in the long run.
I think we'll definitely look at a nanny in future years @marzNC once our little one is a bit bigger. It'll be great to get some skiing time together. In the meantime though we'll have to take it in turns. This could turn out to be the best thing ever though for my own skiing development (i.e nerves!). Thanks also for the link. There's some really interesting information on there.

 

[marzNC]

I think we'll definitely look at a nanny in future years @marzNC once our little one is a bit bigger. It'll be great to get some skiing time together. In the meantime though we'll have to take it in turns. This could turn out to be the best thing ever though for my own skiing development (i.e nerves!). Thanks also for the link. There's some really interesting information on there.

Since you will be skiing alone, well worth considering a lesson or two towards the beginning of the ski trip. Midweek I would guess that a group lesson would be enough to get you off to a good start.

You have two weeks. That's long enough to work on improving a few fundamental skills while getting in mileage while not worrying about keeping up with anyone else. Quickest way to find out what to focus on is to work with an instructor.

I didn't take lessons when my daughter was in ski school. I was an older intermediate who learned long ago but didn't ski much as a working adult. Having taken lessons from very experienced instructors in recent years, the only thing I would change about what I did ten years ago is invest in my own skiing sooner.

 

[Nervous Nellie]

Since you will be skiing alone, well worth considering a lesson or two towards the beginning of the ski trip. Midweek I would guess that a group lesson would be enough to get you off to a good start

Excellent advice thanks. I'd planned on taking a private lesson or two at the start of the holiday just to get comfortable with the mountain again and also to correct any bad habits I might have picked up. I'll ask them about a group lesson too once I have the first few days under my belt...