Beat the Winter Blahs: Ice Skating!
Let’s face it: you can hibernate all winter or you can get out and do something fun. Yes, you have to bundle up. Yes, it takes time to find everybody’s hat, mittens, snow pants, scarves, warm socks, etc. And inevitably, the minute you get your pre-schooler into aforementioned winter gear, they will need to go to the bathroom. But my theory (and I’m sticking to this one) is that the way to beat the winter blahs (or blues – whichever you’re prone to) is by getting out and braving the winter weather. Remember my post on the snowshoes? In my humble opinion, you have to get out and exercise in the cold winter weather – some way, some how. You can’t just stay inside and play Wii Just Dance 2 all winter (although I’m getting pretty good at Ke$ha’s Tik Tok, if I do say so myself) .
So, last weekend, when the temperatures were a little more reasonable, we gathered up the kids and all the necessary gear and went skating at Winter Skate at Patriot Place in Foxborough, MA.
Now, I must tell you that the last time my husband tried to take the kids to Winter Skate at Patriot Place (over Christmas vacation while I was working) they could not get in. The line was soooooo long. And I think that is one of the things that keeps us on the couch in the winter. Fear of lines. “We’re afraid to take the kids skiing – lift lines will be too long on a holiday weekend,” I hear parents say. So, I recommend that you think outside the box. (Sorry to use that over-used, out-dated corporate-speak.) For example, we went to Winter Skate on Super Bowl Sunday at 4 pm. Guess What? No lines and plenty of room to move around on the rink! The funny thing was we bumped into a bunch of smart families that we knew: people from our town, our school, our church and our pool club. Everyone else had the same idea – go later in the day (off-peak) on a day when most people were getting ready for a big football party.
I think another thing that keeps parents from braving these kinds of activities is what I call the Whine Factor. I know my kids look cute:
but believe me, they whine from time to time. For example, they like to snowshoe around our backyard, but when we tried taking them out on the snow-covered bike trail in our town, they did not dig it at all. “It’s too long!!!!! My legs are tired!!!!!” Waaaaahhh!!!!” they whined, as the 80-year-old man shoooshed by us in his 80-year-old cross-country skis.
And there was some whining too on this skate date as our kids worked through their frustrations, getting used to blades on ice. My daughter at first was hanging on to the boards (or me) for dear life, but by the time we left, she was cruising around and singing loudly to the Katy Perry tunes on the loudspeaker. And my son was a little miffed that he could not go too fast in his double-blade skates, so the nice people at Winter Skate let him try out some hockey skates and he quickly picked up some speed.
Driving home, my son said (and I am not making this up), “Hmmmm. I’m really glad we tried that today.” Me too.
Posted by: Melissa 5 comments
Posted in: Exercise
Tags: Winter, Winter Skate
