Anyway, before they went to their first class I emailed the skating director to see what they were supposed to wear. I know, it sounds weird, but I was floundering between sending them all bundled up in snowpants, jackets, hats and mittens, and sending them a little less bogged down wearing long underwear, sweatpants, sweatshirt, hat and light mittens. Details, details.
Quite promptly, I received an email in return stating that it was best to send them in snowpants all bundled up as they would be falling quite a bit while they were learning. She also mentioned that some parents chose to have their kids wear helmets.
A little background on my thoughts on helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, body armor, etc. for kids for such things as ice skating, riding bikes, riding scooters: I think they are ridiculous. When I was a kid I fell more times than I can count when I was riding my bike, playing outside with friends, ice skating, rollerblading and anything else you can think of. I fell, and I turned out just fine. Yes, I had bruises, bumps, and skinned knees, but that ia all a part of being a kid. To cover your child from head to toe in "protective gear" only seems to hinder them in learning the task at hand. At least in my opinion.
Alright, getting off my soapbox on helmets and back to the story.
So like I said, she mentioned some parents choose to put helmets on their kids. My thoughts? I am sure you can imagine. Hah! Helmets? Now why would I put my child in a helmet when all he was doing was slowly skating around the rink with an adult, learning how to skate. No hockey stick. No puck. No need for a Helmet. Right?
Needless to say, I did not buy the boys helmets, and they took off Saturday morning with Dad to have their very first skating lesson. About 5 minutes after 10am I received a text from the Mr. "Check your email" was all it said. So I checked my email and found an email that said. "Where is my helmet Mom? We are bad parents." Uh-oh. I hesitantly opened the file that was attached and found this.
Apparently he was on the ice rink no more than 2 minutes before he had fallen flat on his face. Apparently the ice at indoor rinks is a lot slicker than the ice at the outdoor rinks as they have that big zamboni thing that drives around in an effort to make said ice as smooth as a babies butt. Apparently this zambony things works well, very well. Apparently almost all the parents had their kids in helmets that morning at the ice rink. Apparently we did look like bad parents.
Anthony came home after class, weepy and saying he never wanted to go back there again unless he had a helmet. I admit, this sort of broke my heart.
Daddy took him out this week. $70 later, he has a hockey helmet, and is excited as ever to get back to that ice rink and learn how to skate. It was worth every penny.
I can say that I will never be one of those parents that covers their child from head to toe in protective gear in order to go out in the cul-de-sac to ride their bike; but I guess in this instance, a helmet was a good thing for Anthony to learn how to skate. You live, you learn, right?
1 comment:
Glad he's excited to go skating again!
Hope he feels better too. :)
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