Annalise falls down – skating edition

Longtime readers will remember that a common thread of our last sabbatical year was an attempt to try as many winter sports as possible, in a blog post series we called “Gavin and Allison Fall Down.” One of these entries was the time we tried short-track speed skating. I came away from this experience with mixed feelings. One one hand, everyone at the speed skating club was incredibly welcoming and friendly. On the other hand, due to skates that didn’t fit, a gap of over a decade since my previous skating experience, and a general lack of balance, it was one of the worst athletic experiences of my life; I say this despite the fact I once played on an intramural basketball team of computer science graduate students that lost to a team from the School of the Environment who didn’t wear shoes.

This time, it’s Annalise’s turn. The same short-track team holds a children’s class. We discovered this part-way through the term, and signed Annalise up for the last three sessions. The club remembered us, if that gives you a sense of how memorably bad we were at ice skating.

The first session was not a success. Annalise was in as bad a mood as she’s ever been. Unfortunately, getting to the ice skating facility without a car is a schlep, and Annalise was in full meltdown mode the whole way, which is very unusual for her. The climax was when I indicated a bus seat next to a man innocently listening to a podcast, and she aggressively pointed in his face and screamed, “I don’t want to sit there, because HE’S SITTING THERE!” The actual skating was no better – she took one step on the ice, discovered it was slippery, and refused to do anything further. We got her to walk on her skates on the rubber mat, but that was it before speedwalking to catch a bus home which we missed anyway. Ugh. We did get our first look at the dynamic though, which was that all the club members who were teaching were incredibly nice to her. While in the worst mood of her life, several teachers came over, got on her level, and were very patient.

That week, we watched youtube videos of ice skaters, fussed over an episode of Peppa Pig with ice skating, and had several conversations about trying while scared. We have no idea if any of that worked! She was definitely processing the experience, and brought it up several times on her own.

The second time, she was in a better mood, but was definitely still pretty scared. Also, we discovered that when we grabbed skates from a generous bag of hand-me-downs from a friend, we had grabbed two right skates? That couldn’t have helped. At any rate, she didn’t want to go out there, but we eventually had success by bribing her with a hot dog. She even propelled herself a little. We learned from the skate club to only offer her a finger to hold onto, so she doesn’t hang from your hand, and that she should stand like a penguin, with her heels together and toes out. She was doing great, until she fell on a teacher’s skate, and that adversity was too much. We called it a win, and got off the ice. All the other parents who had watched her fear gave her a round of applause, which she loved. We agreed on a cupcake rather than a hot dog, and we went home.

That next week she kept processing. She talked about falling on the instructor’s skate. She talked about how as she got “bigger and bigger” she was going to learn new things. She was mesmerized by someone skating on an outdoor rink. We agreed in advance she’d get another cupcake. We borrowed skates from the club that had both a right and a left (and were flat speed skates, not rounded hockey skates). All systems were go.

She did great! She ran right out there, and had soon dropped Allison’s hand. She loved it and didn’t want to get off. She was obviously proud of herself.

I think this was the first time we really had to watch her learn to be brave and do something herself. We could talk to her about it, but if she didn’t want to, there wasn’t going to be a lot we could do to make her. Really fun to watch her grow up a little.

Lots and lots of thanks to the speed skating club. I think all I really want anymore is for the world to be nice to my kid, and it’s just so touching when that works out well. We’re signed up for the spring classes!