Non-parent here, but a child of immigrants (and an immigrant myself). This post brought up so many memories I'd not thought about in nearly 40 years: namely, of the ski trip my elementary school in Southern California organized, ski rentals mostly subsidized, but you still had to show up in ski-able clothes. Most of the white kids showed up at the buses with full-on ski outfits, while the predominantly kids of color, many of us immigrants or first-generation Americans, showed up in two layers of pants heavily (and ultimately uselessly) Scotchgarded and then spent time on the bunny slopes, milling around with each other and staring in awe at the other kids who whooshed down the slopes so effortlessly. I'm at a place now where I could afford to pay for ski lessons for my nieces and nephews if they wanted to learn, and maybe even join them!, but I've never stopped internalizing the feeling of skiing being a county club of sorts.
100% having the gear is just as critical as knowing how to do the activity to feeling included. Maybe this is why I felt compelled to get a Burton ski jacket as an adult.
You wrote exactly my sentiments from my snowboard trip with two young kids, and we paid for lessons! I grew up with immigrant parents too and we didn’t even go to the mountains because the cost alone was ridiculous. But my kids loved it. And it made me want to re-learn so I guess we will empty our pockets each winter.
I enjoyed this post and think about this every damn year as I have all the Gen-X conflicts about a super bourgeois sport. The only thing that makes skiing within the realm of possibility is living in the Northeast where the weather is shitty and your kids probably already have long underwear and snow pants and mittens, etc so you are part of the way there, and also they can't look at screen while they ski! My only advice to all parents is if you can think of something easier and cheaper that you like (skating or snowshoeing...or even nordic skiing but what kid wants to cross country ski?) do that! This sport is something Rachel Fleishman would have demanded her kids learn so they could fit in.
100% a Rachel Fleishman activity. I did actually grow up xc skiing and grew to appreciate how humble it is…but always envied the downhill ski kids (though not so much the insular culture)
All of your comments about skiing as a class signifier are spot on but as a person whose parent took them skiing as a child so lI earned but really didn't enjoy it and have never done it as an adult, the big piece that's important is the joy felt at flinging yourself down a mountain. That is not me. I hated it so much that my Dad forwarded me this Atlantic article with a lol recently. https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/12/against-skiing/672525/
I do feel some responsibility though to at least let my kids try it to decide if they hate it or not…which they very well might! I’m fine if they’d prefer to sit by the fire with a book tho :)
Here in MN, our elementary school had a ski day, where every 5th grader goes on a class trip to a local mountain, so that everyone has the opportunity to ski at least once. We have a large Somali population, so it's not necessarily something that some kids would grow up thinking they would be able to do. The elementary school also had a Ski Club on Friday nights, run by a teacher who loved to ski, which led to Ski Club in middle school (run through the park district): a bus takes the kids directly from middle school to a rotating selection of local mountains. I can no longer remember how much it cost, but transportation, lift tickets and ski rental were included. We were glad to both have our son learn a sport, have fun with friends and not have got participate ourselves, lol.
Non-parent here, but a child of immigrants (and an immigrant myself). This post brought up so many memories I'd not thought about in nearly 40 years: namely, of the ski trip my elementary school in Southern California organized, ski rentals mostly subsidized, but you still had to show up in ski-able clothes. Most of the white kids showed up at the buses with full-on ski outfits, while the predominantly kids of color, many of us immigrants or first-generation Americans, showed up in two layers of pants heavily (and ultimately uselessly) Scotchgarded and then spent time on the bunny slopes, milling around with each other and staring in awe at the other kids who whooshed down the slopes so effortlessly. I'm at a place now where I could afford to pay for ski lessons for my nieces and nephews if they wanted to learn, and maybe even join them!, but I've never stopped internalizing the feeling of skiing being a county club of sorts.
100% having the gear is just as critical as knowing how to do the activity to feeling included. Maybe this is why I felt compelled to get a Burton ski jacket as an adult.
You wrote exactly my sentiments from my snowboard trip with two young kids, and we paid for lessons! I grew up with immigrant parents too and we didn’t even go to the mountains because the cost alone was ridiculous. But my kids loved it. And it made me want to re-learn so I guess we will empty our pockets each winter.
I enjoyed this post and think about this every damn year as I have all the Gen-X conflicts about a super bourgeois sport. The only thing that makes skiing within the realm of possibility is living in the Northeast where the weather is shitty and your kids probably already have long underwear and snow pants and mittens, etc so you are part of the way there, and also they can't look at screen while they ski! My only advice to all parents is if you can think of something easier and cheaper that you like (skating or snowshoeing...or even nordic skiing but what kid wants to cross country ski?) do that! This sport is something Rachel Fleishman would have demanded her kids learn so they could fit in.
100% a Rachel Fleishman activity. I did actually grow up xc skiing and grew to appreciate how humble it is…but always envied the downhill ski kids (though not so much the insular culture)
As an adult I def prefer the company of cross country skiers! But let’s face it only in Norway is it considered sexy.
All of your comments about skiing as a class signifier are spot on but as a person whose parent took them skiing as a child so lI earned but really didn't enjoy it and have never done it as an adult, the big piece that's important is the joy felt at flinging yourself down a mountain. That is not me. I hated it so much that my Dad forwarded me this Atlantic article with a lol recently. https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/12/against-skiing/672525/
I do feel some responsibility though to at least let my kids try it to decide if they hate it or not…which they very well might! I’m fine if they’d prefer to sit by the fire with a book tho :)
Here in MN, our elementary school had a ski day, where every 5th grader goes on a class trip to a local mountain, so that everyone has the opportunity to ski at least once. We have a large Somali population, so it's not necessarily something that some kids would grow up thinking they would be able to do. The elementary school also had a Ski Club on Friday nights, run by a teacher who loved to ski, which led to Ski Club in middle school (run through the park district): a bus takes the kids directly from middle school to a rotating selection of local mountains. I can no longer remember how much it cost, but transportation, lift tickets and ski rental were included. We were glad to both have our son learn a sport, have fun with friends and not have got participate ourselves, lol.