Ice Skating Fiasco 2010

Joseph has never seen me ice skate. He has talked about it, but we've never gone skating. Now that Mason is getting old enough to skate (I started when I was 4) we decided to put that dream into action and take a family trip to the local rink. Mason has seen the kids skating at the mall and he's been really interested. It seems like every trip he gets a little more interested and he's been asking to go... so I thought that this would be a pretty successful trip. Boy, was I wrong!

• Mistake #1: We went in the afternoon. Mason was tired - as you can see in the picture above. Unfortunately, the skating rink's family deal doesn't start until the afternoon. He fell asleep in the car. It's pretty critical to the success of an operation that you get him where you're going BEFORE he falls asleep. And IF he falls asleep, let him sleep until he wakes up on his own. Do not - I repeat, do NOT - try to get him up no matter what your time constraints! He wakes up from an interrupted nap the way the rest of us do... only he doesn't have a filter on his emotions yet!

• Mistake #2: We went to the mall skating rink. Since they were having this family deal (4 people for $20 - including skates if you need them.... but don't try to come with less than 4 people b/c they won't give you the deal and you'll pay more as we found out!) it was reaaaaallly crowded. There were tons of people standing in front of the entrance to the actual rink. Mason was less than thrilled by having to wait around walking in skates to get to the ice.

It did not go well at all. Mason was not happy about not instinctively knowing how to skate perfectly. Joseph never even made it onto the ice. I tried to get Mason to skate for a little bit thinking once he felt the freedom of the ice (even while holding onto me), he'd love it... but no. He threw a world class hissy fit and required the assistance of a skate guard to get him off the ice! Then he threw a fit b/c he wanted to go back on the ice. Let's just say it will be another 6 months before we attempt this! I'm not giving up hope, though... He has talked about it atleast 4 times a week since then. I am pretty sure that - like most things - he'll come around when he's ready!