Skiing, Motherhood and Anxiety

The three oldest Stillman children took their first ski lesson today. 

I have been "preparing" for a few years, which is absolutely not code for "procrastinating." I finally enrolled them in a lesson - incidentally, working the full time job of tracking down three sets of ski pants, boots, goggles, hats, gloves, wool socks, ski coats, and face masks. Then put all the stuff on, which took almost as long.

To make this new and intimidating experience even more stressful, they basically had their lesson in the middle of a blizzard. The wind was whipping, the snow was slapping, the mom was feeling like a total creep. 

Before motherhood I always thought it would be easy to raise tough kids. Let 'em struggle! Don't solve everything for them! It's good for them, teaches them character!

Nobody told me that when my baby called me from the top of a mountain crying because they "keep falling down" that I would feel so...tortured.

And did they get in the car excited and invigorated by this new experience, like my sisters told me they would?

Let's check.

Hey Matthew, how did it go?

Caroline, ready to do it again?

Claire, how is it that you require only 2.2 hours of sleep per night?

I realize that last question is unrelated to skiing but I NEED TO KNOW.