Perfect Moment Monday - skiing with my son

Before Lori closes the list for the December 31st Perfect Moment Monday later today, here's my entry - still on a Monday, only two weeks too late...

I consulted the notes app on my phone to check which moment I'd choose to be my most perfect moment of the month (since last month I forgot what I actually wanted to write about and thus had to think of something else I decided I would make a note as soon as I'd notice a perfect moment). There were four moments I'd written down, all great, but the one I really want to write about I didn't note, but I didn't forget it either...

The first week of the Christmas break we went to the mountains for a week of skiing and other snow fun. I'd signed up our 3-year old for a 6-day initiation ski-class, every morning from 9:15 until 11:30. We had talked about it and he was excited, although he kept saying he wanted to go skiing with me. I explained that we could do that in the afternoons, but that he would have to learn how to ski from a real ski instructor. The first morning we were both nervous, the festive atmosphere of anticipation in the car and at the ski rental place quickly changed when he was signed in for class, was told to stand in line behind the other kids and realized that mommy and daddy were not going to stay. He started crying and screaming - I let the instructors deal with it first, but they quickly gave up and just left him standing, while taking the next kid in line. So I went in and tried to calm him down. Almost impossible. After about half an hour we left anyway, hoping he would calm down and join the other kids. So with heavy hearts we went for a coffee and came back about 45 minutes later, only to see that he had indeed calmed down, but had taken off his skis and was just playing by himself in the snow. The instructors only talked to him when we was throwing snow balls at them or the other kids... So cursing the instructors under my breath for not being a bit more persistent in trying to get him to join the others, plus not trying to give him some self confidence (once they'd signed him in they just told him to get in line. Not one of the instructors introduced him-/herself to the kids, nor did they explain to them what they were going to do), I stepped in again, got his skis on, and took him by the hand, up the little hill (on a sort of carpet), and then hands on the knees going down. It went OK, he smiled again, and was willing to do another round. The head instructor told me to get out. I did. Our son later started crying again because he wanted to take the little rope lift but he was not allowed. Luckily the class was over five minutes later...

I wondered if should cancel the ski class and just teach him myself, but I also remember that I never liked skiing lessons when I was a kid, but now I love skiing, so we probably just had to go through it. Luckily the rest of the week went much better (we also learned to just give him a big kiss and take off immediately, even though I would have loved to watch him in class, it was better not to stay) and he did learn the very first skiing basics. We went skiing together two afternoons - first I took him between my legs, holding him under his arms, but that was too easy for him: he would just hang in my arms and not stand on his skis at all... So we changed it to having him next to me and both holding on to one of my ski poles. This worked perfectly! Of course we only took very easy slopes, but even then we sometimes picked up a little speed. He would talk to me and it would go something like this (of course not in English, but in Dutch and/or French): "go faster mommy! Oh I'm scared! Yay that was fun! Hahaha! Again!". There are people who complain that when going on a ski vacation with young kids will not allow you to really ski yourself, so they try to get there kids in ski class + daycare at the ski resort. I don't judge that, I sneaked out one afternoon as well to go skiing with a friend while hubby watched the (napping) kids, but the giggles I heard next to me when skiing with my son were equally, if not more rewarding than a perfect adrenaline-filled downhill run. I feel blessed that I now have children I can share my love for skiing with and think back with fond memories of the times I went skiing with my dad (my mom was afraid of heights and stayed away from the slopes, she preferred cross country skiing). It was a true Perfect Moment of which I hope there will be a few more this winter and the years to come.

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Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

On the last Monday of each month we engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join.