[color=darkred:41474d4364] This is my tale about taking my children to skating this afternoon.
They've been skating before - about a year ago.

It was a Learn to Skate UK session, with tuition for 45 minutes.
I didn't expect them to last that long, but both of them did - almost!
Plus they had another 30 minutes of playing/practising.

The older daughter, who has her own skates, is off on her own and gaining a bit more confidence. The younger one, who is 4, wearing yukky hired skates with paper thin blades, did very well. I stayed beside her all the time, sometimes holding her hand.

We had two coaches (one being MY coach) who both did a very encouraging job, considering they'd both been on the ice for about 5 hours already.

At first they just practised penguin steps, then small gliding steps.
Then they'd glide along and bend down to touch their toes.
There was a stopping (T stop and snowplough) exercise, which they found difficult, and backwards steps with toes pointed inward, and forward swizzles - is [b:41474d4364]that[/b:41474d4364] the name of the move: feet together, feet apart, gliding along, making continuous "S" shapes?

[b:41474d4364]Falls[/b:41474d4364]
They both fell, and it was the younger one who was least bothered by falling. My 6 year old fell and started to look weepy but one of the coaches came promptly over and miraculously diverted her attention and made her laugh.
I have to say, the whole time litte 'un was skating I was paranoid about a fall to the back of the head. How skate mum's can watch their kids do doubles and triples and go fleeing, I'll never know. I'll certainly never be able to watch it.

After the lesson we played about for a while, and since No.1 was complaining of being cold, we had some hot chocolate and energy-giving crisps in the canteen. I never ever see the canteen open, as I skate in the weekday mornings.

We all went back on for 20 minutes, but again, No1 wanted to go off, so she waited for us off ice.
Meanwhile No2 was happy to keep skating, holding my hand this time, until it was time to go.

[b:41474d4364]Conclusion[/b:41474d4364]
I think we all enjoyed ourselves. Maybe with No1 it was 50/50, her highlight being the snack.
Of the two, No1 is a "better" skater, in that she can skate on her own, if erratically. But of course she is 6.
However, No2 has the obvious "liking" for it - could this be a passion passed down from mother to child?
And she wants to go back on Wednesday.
No1 has just informed me that she would rather go to Grandma's while No2 goes skating with me on Wednesday.
So No2 is delighted as this means she will get to wear No1's skates!
I managed to fit in one sit spin, one atrocious camel spin and one lovely backspin - lovely for me, that is!

[b:41474d4364]Me? A Skate mum?[/b:41474d4364]
YIKES, so now I'm going to be a skate mum, and I've been saved the worry of "what if they BOTH like skating? How can I afford 3 skaters in the family?", as one's already decided she doesn't want to go this week!

Are there any skate mum's here?
Or even surrogate skate mum's?
This could be where you write about your childrens' skating.....
[/color:41474d4364]

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MEL
Absolute Skating

If you're worried about falls to the head for your little one, you could put a bike helmet on her. I think my rink does that for all the little beginners in group lessons. I know they have the helmets for hire.

jenlyon60
I know this is going to sound bad, but despite having safety in her best interests, I wouldn't want her to feel alienated/different - as there was noone else wearing head protection, and some of the kids were younger than 4.
I know from my little 'un's personality, that she would not want to be the odd one out.
Better still that she learns to fall avoiding hitting her head as was shown by coaches.
Maybe with time, I'd get used to it, and be able to let go a bit - after all, she's still my baby! :wink:

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Mel...instead of a helmet, make sure she wears a winter hat, the knit kind that you can roll up at the edge. That folded part makes a pretty good cushion to the back of the head. A hat won't stand out like a helmet would, but it will still offer at least a little bit of pretection.

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[quote:7f610ecad5="flippet"]Mel...instead of a helmet, make sure she wears a winter hat, the knit kind that you can roll up at the edge. That folded part makes a pretty good cushion to the back of the head. A hat won't stand out like a helmet would, but it will still offer at least a little bit of protection.[/quote:7f610ecad5]

Unfortunately they don't allow anyone to wear a hat at the rinks in the UK (even coaches aren't SUPPOSED to) because of the problem of them falling off or being thrown about into someone's path! Safety helmets aren't the norm over here either (unless you're playing hockey).

Just wait until she wants a sparkly dress, Mel

L x

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The best whisper is a click

[quote="TashaKat
Unfortunately they don't allow anyone to wear a hat at the rinks in the UK [/quote]with the sole exception of "religious headgear, which must be securely fastened", at least, that is the rule at our rink.

But, of course, the teenage louts still skate round with their baseball or knitted caps on, and think they are so smart - they don't like being told to take them off, either.

And why, oh why, do they persist in eating sweets while on the ice and then dropping the wrappers all over the place? Our rink has just placed up notices every few inches telling people what to or not to do (so irritating - we think in preparation to being sold to the Council, who have said they will buy it to prevent closure ), but does it make any difference? You guess!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

[quote:33d4f514ff="melanieuk"][color=darkred:33d4f514ff] Are there any skate mum's here?
Or even surrogate skate mum's?
This could be where you write about your childrens' skating.....
[/color:33d4f514ff][/quote:33d4f514ff]

That would be me, for one. I think I mentioned Taz Jr. over on FSW a few times. Junior is 10 and started skating at age 3. In retrospect, I probably would have waited to put her on the ice until age 4 or so...3 yo's are not that coordinated and it took her most of that time just to be able to stand up on the ice! It was really hard to resist, tho. We would watch skating on TV and she would spin and jump around the family room and kept saying how she wanted to do what they did on TV. We started by taking her to public skate where Mom spent most of her time holding her up - heaven forbid should my baby fall, but OH my aching back. A sympathetic skate guard finally suggested tot group lessons, and as an afterthought, "oh they have them for adults, too." Didn't plan on both of us getting hooked, but there you have it.

Junior is now in USFSA Preliminary, has a clean 2sal and an on-again, off-again 2loop. If nothing else, I think having her around helps me be accepted by the kids as just another skater. Her friends will play my tape when it's my turn, and I help play theirs when it's their turn. I'm almost going to miss them when they are skating during the day this summer and I'm on the evening sessions.

Wow, for learn to skate classes, helmets are compulsory here in Canada....at least in my area. No preschooler is allowed on the ice without one until they have passed a certain test....not sure what that test is though.
Since everyone has one, there isn't any chance of them feeling different and it sure helps with the safety issue.

Would it help to suggest to the executive that they might consider this?

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sulin

Tonight I took my smallest daughter to rink again, at her request.
You know how I said I was scared she'd hit her head?
A man I know (in his 60s, been skating for YEARS) fell, NO, THUDDED into the ice with the back of his head tonight. He was out cold for 15 minutes...I was beginning to feel a bit sick, thinking I'd have to do CPR if he had an MI or CVA or something. How selfish is that?
Anyway, I really hoped he was ok, but he went away in an ambulance to A&E.
My coach dealt admirably with the incident.
My daughter didn't notice anything, despite the man laying on the ice covered in blankets for 30 minutes, including a stretcher coming on the ice.
True, we were all moved up to the top end of the rink, but the whole thing was in full view. Daughter didn't look, she didn't comment, she just skated and didn't want to get off the ice to go home.

She tends to lean backwards at times in the fight to control her balance.
She fell a few times, but didn't cry. She still prefers to hold my hand, but can skate on her own for a while.
She's also got a bit more confidence already and can do lemons holding my hand - that's amazing for 2nd time on the ice (officially).
My other daughter who can skate on her own more "safely" wants to go on Monday.

I wish they'd make helmets compulsory too. I wouldn't dream of letting her out on her bike without one, and I freak at the thought of her falling backwards.
One skatepal said to put soft bobbles (hair tie things) in her hair all the way down the back of her head which might help cushion her soft skull a bit. :?

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Offical "skatemom" reporting in...I'm thinking you should go ahead and let your little one wear her bike helmet or buy her one of the skateboard helmets to wear if she'll agree. It will make you feel better. I have one child who insisted on wearing his helmet for his first year of skating, and even though he was in the minority, nobody thought anything of it. In fact I skated with a gentleman who was visiting our rink who wore a helmet, although he obviously was fairly skilled. I didn't ask him why he wore it, and we all got used to seeing him with it in short order.

I've seen lots of kids fall and bump their heads, but luckily none of the bumps have been serious. But since your littlest seems unstable, protect her as best you can and don't worry about what others think.

Best wishes to that man who fell...I have had three nasty falls bumping my head. The last time I saw stars and was pretty disoriented...but no lasting ill effects.

Hi Mel,

I'm a skater and a skate mum. Was a skater first but needless to say both my children have followed in my footsteps (or should I say glides!). My daughter is 7 and has skated regularly since she was 4. I did do a couple of mums and toddlers courses with her when she was about 2 as well and she has been having private lessons since she was 4.5 years old.
She now has her first programme but she suffers with dyspraxia and so her style isn't great yet though I hope she'll pass her Level 1 in the future. My son is nearly 5 and has skated every week since he was 2.5 years old. He has been having private lessons since November. Both enjoy it - my daughter especially since she got her programme. My son is still at the age where he is happy to play on the ice and there are always a number of older kids willing to give him their time.

My advice is to let them skate for as long as they like but let them sit on the side when they've had enough. There will be times when they don't want to skate and you just have to accept that. It is expensive having three skaters in the family particularly as my daughter and I have two lessons and my son one lesson per week, plus off-ice classes for my daughter and myself, plus skates, plus dresses. Not got to the posh skating trousers stage yet for Matthew, thank goodness as that will be more expense. But it's worth it and it's great to be able to share skating with your kids.

Nicki

At my favorite rink, helmets are mandatory for learn to skaters. Fear of lawsuits dictated this.

One of our older, experienced adult skaters took a backward fall a few months ago and banged her head. We were able to get her off of the ice with a little support and felt fairly sure that she didn't have a severe concussion.

The next morning she discovered that the impact on the back of her head had been so hard it broke her jaw. A strange set of circumstances, but true. She could only eat through a straw for the next four weeks then she graduated to soft foods only for another three. OUCH!!!

Neither of my children have asked about going skating since my husband came home (unexpectedly returned from London for a weekend) and he took them 2 weeks ago. I don't know if it was just his presence instead of mine, but the little child didn't want to skate after about 15 minutes on the ice.
To me that means it's not worth going at all. The expense is just too great for my budget. And 15 minutes means she's not enjoying it.
However, when she was with me, both times I had to bribe her off the ice.
I've not been skating for 2.5 weeks, so I haven't mentioned it to my kids.
They haven't asked to go skating during that time and I don't want to push it with them. Anything else, like swimming, dancing or trampolining, I tell them they're going whether they want to or not (all these are pre-paid and they love it when they get there), but with skating I don't, because I cringe at the thought of being a pushy skate mum as opposed to a non-pushy one.
Anyone else who skated feel that way?

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MEL
Absolute Skating

It was my daughter used to be the one that nagged me to go skating with her, when she wasn't quite old enough to go alone, but was totally in love with the sport.... the rest, as they say, is history! And she found doing her Novice Free (as it was then) a good counter-irritant to A-levels (public examinations taken after 13 years' schooling that qualify you for university entrance). But now she has her last hurdle for her degree tomorrow, and graduates on 10 July, where do the years go? (And from tomorrow, Robert and I qualify for the infamous Zimmer Trophy class at Oxford Seniors competition, where both skaters must be over 45 and their combined age must be over 100!). Basically, I'm feeling old There ought to be a smiley with grey hair and a walking-stick....

I took my niece and nephew skating last week - it was supposed to be his birthday treat, as he'd been longing for it. His mother thought he would hate it, but in fact he had a wonderful time, but 3-year-old Clare spent all of 30 seconds on the ice and then wailed and had to be taken off. She was very good and spent the rest of the time engrossed in her colouring book, but I do wish she'd decided she didn't want to before I'd paid for ice time and skate hire for her!

I wonder, though, whether if I'd taken Clare on the ice myself, and left Henry in his mother's tender care (she hadn't skated for about 23 years, so was somewhat wobbly, to say the least), the positions would have been reversed. I was able to tow Henry round, and after a couple of minutes he was doing lemons if I pulled him, and eventually he plucked up the courage to let go and roar round, if not at the speed of light, then faster than I expected!

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I never wanted to be a pushy skate mom either. I took my daughter to skate at age 7. She liked it but not enough to want to go back. She took some basic skills at age 8, then quit again for another year. At age 9 she wanted to try again, and we obliged. She didn't start private lessons until she was almost 10, and from there she took off with the sport. Today at 14 she just passed her Intermediate tests, and skating is a huge committment.

There is a fine line between being pushy, and making decisions that encourage your child when they need direction. We all have those times when we get discouraged, and sometimes need to have someone "push" us a little. But, even now I allow her to pursue her goals as long as she continues to love what she is doing. She is doing it for herself, not for me.

At our rink, the helmets come off at the advanced CanSkate session, which is badges 4 -7. This is where 3 turns, one foot spins and small jumps are introduced. The kids have to learn to balance without a helmet on their head. The solution for girls is to have a good thick pony tail or bun. Boys, well boys wouldn't admit they'd just scrambled their brains, my son included.
FWIW, there were no concussions last year, but three broken wrists instead and a rash of knee ailments.

The rule in our house was always that you had to finish out the series you started before you could change to another activity. So, if ballet was 2 semesters per year, you had to do the whole semester that was paid for before you could switch. For group lessons, you had to do the 6 week series, for swimming the 8 wks of classes, etc. That's because money was always tight & it's good for kids to see how it relates to their extracurricular activities so they appreciate them. It makes them think about what they really want to do, & it's a fair time commitment so if a child really doesn't care for an activity once they start they can see the light at the end of the tunnel & know that it will come to an end. Unfortunately that didn't happen with skating as expensive as it turned out to be, but it did happen for us with some of the less expensive sports like softball & soccer.

I'm a skatemom too! Luckily, the girls and I can skate in our Basic Skills program, so it's really a great family thing. They very rarely beg to be excused from our Sunday Night Club lessons. We've been doing it for four years, with a rare private lesson thrown in here and there, so we're not great skaters, but we're having a lot of fun.

Oldest daughter, Icy - age 11, just made the club's youth intro synchro team, and that's going to change the dynamics of our skating a bit. She'll be getting regular private lessons, plus the synchro practice and off-ice training too. Hopefully, she'll love it and stick with it. She just gave up gymnastics after five years of that sport, is growing in many ways, and is a bit difficult to understand now, sigh...

Schmeck

I'm a skater and a skate mom. My daughter is going to be 6 in September and we both started with private lessons in February as my work schedule didn't fit with scheduled classes. I was petrified that she'd fall, I guess I still am. I feel a lot better now that she is starting beta and has bit more control. Our coach is very good and holds her hand half the time, which makes me feel a lot better.

Since we take our lessons together it is a special mother-daughter thing and we both really enjoy it. Of course there are some days that she is just not really in the mood and both the coach and myself really have to work hard on making the lessons more fun for her.

OH Goodie finally a thread for skate moms !!

I'm a skating mom too....never dreamed I would be one

Used to be a joke that I was in law school to pay for skating....(you get the drift)

Our 10 yr old is quite tiny, so tiny in fact, we didn't let her set foot on the ice until she was 5 1/2...we were scared she'd get hurt. But she pushed us for this from the age of about 2 1/2....after seeing Kurt Browning on TV....

We started with helmets, extra padding---probably the worst most paranoid parents ever---nowadays, seems that although some rinks require helmets, some Canskate programs don't appear to enforce it...

Didn't take ours long to get into the stroke of things, not even a year till her first competition. She is now doing her axle, 2sal, 2loop and sometimes 2flip....we will be lucky to get a 2lutz consistent b/c of the impact (baby size 13 skate and 42 lbs)---genetically tiny little thing-had all kinds of tests at two years b/c dr thought something was wrong with her...everyone says she should do pairs---but oh the injuries, comes to mind....

So nice to hear about about others--any tips for dealing with the hormonal surges---if we can call them that, that seem to occur after concentrated periods of skating---ie 5 days a week ???

JD, I'm perplexed...what is it that you mean by "hormonal surges" brought on my skating 5 days a week? Are you saying your ten year old is moody like a teen? If so, you haven't seen anything yet...LOL!

Skatemom of a 14 year old here......who does get pretty cranky by Friday after skating all week!

yes, hormonal surges, I think they are.....she is so tiny, looks like a 7 year old---never thought she would hit puberty so early, thought puberty way waaaayyyy off-totally unprepared---but I think she's there due to the first little "signs"- sore breast area, teariness,

She's generally fine during the week, but Friday night, its like some sort of switch turns on and look out world....cranky is an understatement...

I take it we're here for awhile-----EGAD......how long will this take....???? (LOL)


What do you do Elyse???

[quote:263e2b54bf="JD"]
Our 10 yr old is quite tiny, so tiny in fact, we didn't let her set foot on the ice until she was 5 1/2...we were scared she'd get hurt. But she pushed us for this from the age of about 2 1/2....after seeing Kurt Browning on TV....

We started with helmets, extra padding---probably the worst most paranoid parents ever---nowadays, seems that although some rinks require helmets, some Canskate programs don't appear to enforce it...

Didn't take ours long to get into the stroke of things, not even a year till her first competition. She is now doing her axle, 2sal, 2loop and sometimes 2flip....we will be lucky to get a 2lutz consistent b/c of the impact (baby size 13 skate and 42 lbs)---genetically tiny little thing-had all kinds of tests at two years b/c dr thought something was wrong with her...everyone says she should do pairs---but oh the injuries, comes to mind....

help! How do I close this quote???

[color=darkblue]Hi JD,
I've not posted here before but was interested in your comments about your small daughter as I had exactly the same thing with my daughter (now 10 but smaller than most 8yr olds) who never ate and never slept. We went through loads of tests when she was 18months or so but they never found a reason. However it is now working to her advantage in skating as she has been doing pairs with her brother (just 13 and a strapping lad). It has given her skating a boost both through having to keep up with her stronger brother (though her spins are much better than his) and because they have won medals as a pair where the competition is less strong than singles (They won the gold trophy at a recent Open comp and were thrilled). I have only had one real scare so far when somone got in the way in the middle of their programme and they went over backwards during a lift. He banged his head and his blades scraped her wrists but luckily there was no serious damage
She started skating at 8 because I wanted to learn and didn't want to go on my own! Her brother (then 10) joined us in the second level course (having decided he didn't need to do beginners - annoyingly he was right and finished the courses ahead of us!). Of course the (expensive) result has been that we are all hooked and I am about to compete in an adult Open (in the UK) next week. The worst thing about being a skating skate mum is when your kids laugh at your efforts - it being so much more difficult to learn as an adult but I really enjoy both skating myself and watching my kids skate.
Happy Skating[/quote:263e2b54bf]

I'm kinda on the other side of the coin here - I'm not a skate mum but I skate and I live at home (I'm 18 ). I only started skating in Feb last year so I didn't have the whole shebang as a kid, but I did do other stuff. Anyway, I understand what you're all saying about not wanting to push your kids or anything, wanting to let them request to go skating rather than you saying they have to, etc. While this is commendable (and I'd be like that too) I also sometimes wish my parents had pushed me more when I was a kid. One thing that stands out most is that as a kid I was always a fast runner, and when I did cross country, even though I was tired near the end I could put on a burst of speed for the last 100 or so metres. My dad was a cross country runner and he always said that that was special. I loved doing 100 metre sprints in sports day, and I loved Linford Christie. I did cross country races when I was in primary school and competed four years in a row (just a race that was held at the high school I later went to) - I was 8 years old the first time, 9 the second, 10 the third and 11 the fourth. I came (IIRC) 11th, then 8th, then 4th twice, running against girls up to 11 who were training - I wasn't, and in the first time I was 4 years younger than them. There were about 150 kids in the race. I loved sprinting (wasn't as keen on long distance), but even though my dad thought I had talent etc, I was never pushed, put into an athletics club or anything like that. I wasn't old enough to think about that for myself, and in hindsight I kind of wish I had been pushed more.
Also, when I was little me and my sister were always making up dance routines in the living room, but I never had dance lessons (my mum says she asked me if I wanted them but I wasn't bothered, but I distinctly remembering asking her for ballet lessons when I was little, but she doesn't remember that), and when I was 10 and discovered skating (TV), I got totally into it (I convinced myself I was Torvill and Dean's biggest fan and I spent all my birthday money on a book about them), I never got to skate. (I wanted to be Jayne when I grew up, and got totally excited because the book said they had started skating at 9 and 10 and I had just turned 10). I don't blame my parents for that though, there isn't a local rink. I can't help thinking of what might have been though.
Anyway, enough waffle, I didn't mean to go on. Just wanted to say that sometimes pushing can be a positive thing, if you're too laid back and indifferent then your kids won't stick at it even if they like it.

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.