Bad Parent!
Posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
I will be the first to admit I live in a bubble. I can prove that by the fact that just last week, my wife had to inform me that a person from Yemen tried to blow up a plane that was headed to the States.
What?!
As far as I knew, that day was filled with freshies at Mary Jane with my kids, Mayah, 11, and Will, 9. Who knew people were in such a foul mood?
But I also know that at times mine and Cyn’s parenting comes under scrutiny by others. Namely, my parents and family …
In an effort to be a good parent, I spend a lot of time with my kids. It’s just that the way we do it is kinda different than most, I guess. Cyn and I want to spend time with them, I think they’re cool kids, and I figure if I’m going to be hanging out with people, why wouldn’t I choose them. My wife and I have been best friends for 15 years, and I believe that is why when it hit the fan, as it always does, we were able to navigate through the troubles at hand together. Same goes for our kids.
Even though I believe those things to my core, as I stood on the side of Berthoud Pass in Winter Park on New Year’s Day, I was second-guessing my parental judgment. It was a splitter blue day, and we had been resort riding for about a week and a half. In short, we were sick of crowds and people in general. That’s when the plan hit.
Let’s ski the pass with the kids. They have skied out of bounds a bit, but never in the “real” backcountry. Berthoud would be the first, and 7 Mile, a run that goes the entire way down the pass, would be their first.
We loaded up and walked to the edge of where you drop in. The line looked amazing, perfect snow, and sun, and no people. As we made the first turns in the knee-deep pow, every worry I had melted away. Our puppy ran next to us — sometimes above the snow, sometimes under — as we made our way down the pass.
The shouts and smiles came easy, and even when the terrain became steep our kids reacted with grace and calm, skiing the lines we picked and always sticking together. As we emerged from the trees to the road seven miles later, the only thing to say was, “AGAIN!”
My son asked first, “Well, how do we get back to the top?”
This is the part where we go into the “bad parent” column …
I showed him where we would stand and, in true pass etiquette, threw my thumb up in the air and waited. After about two cars a pickup stopped and we climbed in. We put the kids against the cab, and off we went into the cold climb. The smiles and laughs only confirmed how much they liked this covert ride. We of course gave them the parent lecture about NEVER doing this without us along, mostly because of the danger, but also because that would mean we were not skiing with them!
Back at the top, the guys who picked us up informed us they had never given a family a ride, much less even seen kids up here. We laughed and thanked them for contributing to the dark side of minors.
We trekked over to the top once again, and with smiles intact, dropped in for another bliss-filled run to the bottom.
Craig DeMartino is one of Cloudveil’s Inspired Mountain Ambassadors.
Berthoud is great. How is the Mushroom patch skiing? I love MJ I could lap the patch all day and find good snow even when the Mtn. was over crowded. Thank god I got out of Colorado when I did and back to WYO to enjoy a few more years of semi uncrowded skiing. But I do miss MJ a little bit.
Its all still really good. Your right, even when its crowded there are a lot of places where it sits waiting! Thanks,
c
Well done… Sounds like you are a pretty good parent to me.
Left WP/MJ at 16 in ‘85 and haven’t been back. Live in N. Cal. now with 4 boys of my own and can’t wait to get back to it. I was just talking yesterday with a friend here about the Pass. Great story and it made me miss the old stomping ground Outhouse and D. Frenchman.
I’m nominating you for Parent of the Year.
Great Parenting!!! My wife would have a sh*& fit if she found I did something like that, eventhough she knows that it is eventually going to happen. My 5 yr old daughter spends a great deal of time out in the backcountry w/ me and my newborn son will be joining us in the next couple years. I can’t wait! I find spending time outdoors with my child brings a lot of joy to my life.
Bad Parent! | Outside All Day || We Have To Be Outside says: January 13th, 2010 at 9:48 am
[...] Bad Parent! By Craig DeMartino January, 6 2010 I will be the first to admit I live in a bubble. I can prove that by the fact that just last week, my wife had to inform me that a person from Yemen tried to blow up a plane that was headed to the States. What?! As far as I knew, that day was filled with freshies at Mary Jane with my kids, Mayah, 11, and Will, 9. Who knew people were in such a foul mood? But I also know that at times mine and Cyn’s parenting comes under scrutiny by others. Namely, my parents and family… [...]
You are a werry werry bad man…but I like it. Too cool Daddy-O! Keep up the good work!