The Show Must Go On

I mostly talk about lifting here, but I do much more Dad-ing than I do lifting. A major dad skill is being able to manage through what can seem like an endless set of roadblocks on your path to the picturesque plan that you had in your head.

As a Dad, your job sometimes is to hold it together even when everything is breaking down. It’s like in Christmas Vacation when Clark Griswold insisted on pressing forward with his Christmas even though it was a big mess.

This weekend the entire family geared up for a quick trip to our cabin in the woods to go skiing Sunday morning.

Kids woke up at 6:45, it was 10 degrees outside, but we forgot to bring milk, so I made a quick trip to the store. Then we had to pick up the skis from the shop where we left them to get serviced. When we picked them up, the shop forgot to give us the boots we had left for them to make sure the bindings were sized right, so we had to go back to the store a few minutes after we left to grab the boots.

Then, once we got to the mountain, and got all our gear on, it turns out one of the boys bindings wasn’t sized for his boot, so I had to adjust them myself on the spot.

Also, it turns out my other son’s snowboard bindings were so small relative to his boots that he couldn’t strap in by himself all day and needed me to strap him in on every run.

Then after about an hour of semi blissful skiing and snowboarding, one of my boys basically got caught on the mountain too far from a bathroom and peed in his pants. Somehow we had an extra pair of snow pants handy and after a trip to the car he was ready to go again.

We skied a couple more hours and then drove home where I now sit watching football, before sneaking out to the garage for some squats.

Was it all worth it? I think so, but it is a big effort to make these memories. And sometimes it takes some extra effort to work out the kinks on the first ski day of the season.

The lesson: as a dad, no matter how frustrating these setbacks can feel, it’s your job to keep it together!