A Day In the Life of a Perisher Kids Ski Instructor

Working as a children's ski instructor has often led me to ponder the similarities to parenthood that the job poses. In some regards, being a parent seems way more intense and difficult than being an instructor, the big one being nighttime. You see, I don't ever take any of these kids home with me! But other aspects also seem much more difficult. To try to portray these similarities and differences I will now give you a timeline of a typical day for me here at Perisher Kids Ski School. And just to give you an idea what I do everyday (it's not all parenting related). Though to be honest, I'm picking a rather difficult day, the easy days aren't as interesting. 

630 Wake up. Every day no matter what, I wake up at 630. My alarm is set for 659. Stupid internal clock has been off all season. I lay in bed until the alarm goes off...

659 the alarm goes off and I hit snooze a few times. Hoping that through sheer strength of will I can slow time enough to give me a few more minutes of sleep

730 realizing that I haven't fallen back asleep and that I now have only a few minutes to get ready for the day I jump out of bed.

735 do an ancient aboriginal wee wee dance that simultaneously makes my housemate get out of the shower and plugs the inevitable and uncontrollable flow of urin attempting to burst through the Urethra Dam.

736 turn on all the hot water faucets in the house

737 wait at the door to the bathroom as Andy curses the insufficiency of our hot water heater

738 Release the flood! Groans of relief emanate from my very soul

739 vow that tomorrow I will get out of bed earlier so I can pee before Andy gets in the shower

740 do something else in the bathroom

745-750 now cram all the get ready for the day stuff into a 6 minute scramble of frantic eating, dressing, weather checking, and making mental notes to take out the trash after work.

751 Power walk to the spot where my carpool picks me up.

800 ponder about why I am always so worried about being late for carpool even though not once all season has my ride been on time.

805-825 Watch the kangaroos, emus, echidnas, wombats, cows, horses, and sheep through the windows as we drive through the snowy mountains to Perisher valley, all while listening to Georgia giggle and tell stories about funny things she has eaten and the times she weed in her pants. Georgia is still drunk from last night

825-845 Play a game of locker room twister. The catch is that while you are wrestling 100's of other instructors to get around the locker room you've got to simultaneously be putting on all your ski gear and carrying skis/snowboards around without killing each other. It's tight in there...

850 Leave the locker room and cross the bridge to line up. Silently curse the weather, because when I got out of the car it was sunny, now it's raining.

855 go back into locker room to get rain coat.

900 arrive at morning line up. Supervisors tell us it's raining and to try to stay dry. Chuckle at the funny joke, then realize it's not a joke. Learn assignment for the day, die a little inside because I'm assigned to 5 year old beginners.

905 Rain coat is soaked all the way through.

910 The masses encroach us as the gate to let the parents and their children in is opened

915 Loose all hope that I will only have a few children in my class, as the 9^th kid walks up with parents

915-945 This time is spent simultaneously trying to calm down children who are suffering severely from separation anxiety and parents who are suffering from the same thing. Loosely organize the 47 children into three groups, based on who is crying, who is wearing coat A or coat B, and who isn't already throwing snowballs at me.

950 finally have groups sorted, only 13 kids in my class today, piece of cake. Now start the battle with other instructors and their groups for the limited flat ground space and teaching mattes.

1000 Start teaching

1001 Console crying child

1002 pick up 12 kids who are on the ground

1003 late kid shows up

1004 put 21 gloves back on wet kids that took them off, because they are wet

1005 pick up 9 kids who are on the ground

1006 console crying child

1007 late kid shows up

1008 put 7 pairs of goggles on kids

1009 Re adjust 20 ski boots, it's not the parents fault, they've never put on ski boots before either

1010 pick up more kids, back is already sore

Well, from here lets just skip ahead a little, this goes on for awhile

1100 For the first time all day, all 15 children have two skis on their feet, and they are all standing up at the same time.

1101-1130 This is the time when I attempt to teach children how to move around with skis on their feet. Walking with skis on is super simple for me. You just have to stand in a wide stance, bend your knees and ankles a little whilst inclining your ankles to the inside so that each ski is in an edged position while taking small steps forward. Simple, why can't they do it. Three days later one kid will be able to do it. So...instead of a group of kids that can independently move about, I push them around one by one as we practice straight gliding in an insufficient space. By this point every child has either asked if it's time to go home yet, or told me they want mommy.

1130-1145 We play in the slush and build a snowman...thingy.

1145-1215 I now have 30 glorious minutes to walk 15 children through ankle deep slush, down a precarious concrete staircase, and into a jam packed lunch room. Take off 30 soaking mittens, 15 helmets, 15 ski school bibs, and 15 coats. Wring out all the gloves and put them in a dryer with 300 other soaking wet, snot filled, slobbery gloves and then get 15 drinks, lunches, and desserts for 15 children. Open wrappers, clean up spills, cut food into pieces, make 7 sandwiches for the 7 kids who don't want to eat what is for lunch today. Then clean everything up while 150 children wrestle and fight over 5 toilets. Tell 9 kids that they have to go to the toilet even if they don't have to. Zip up 11 pant zippers, 6 of which are soaked in wee. Find all the correct gloves out of the dryer. Find the 5 children who have yet to emerge from the toilets. Tell three parents they can't come in here and no I don't know where Suzy is. She is not in my class. Before putting all those clothes back onto 15 restless and soaking children I attempt to eat my own lunch. Dress 15 kids back up into their coats, bibs, helmets, goggles, neck warmers, and wetter than before the dryer gloves. All this is done of course in a room so full of people it feels like a Yo Gabba Gabba concert. True chaos.

1245 actually make it back to our skis, but not until after 4 kids spot their parents and are now crying uncontrollably.

1300 All kids now have skis on again, start picking up all the kids that have fallen over while I have been putting on the other kids' skis

1315 All kids are now at the top of the magic carpet. Pick up all the kids who got there first and have fallen over

1400 Since none of them can stop themselves, I have finally finished taking them each down the hill one at a time, putting them back on the magic carpet and hiking back up the hill to bring down the next child. I am soaked through, now it's mostly from the sweat. Every child has now had one go skiing down the hill.

1430 By my estimations, I have now picked up off the ground roughly 700 pounds of wiggly wet child meat. My back is still sore. Two of the kids can stop in a wedge and make it down by themselves. My sense of self worth and personal achievement break through the rain clouds in a ray of glorious pride and relief

1435 The maximum threshold of 50% crying children has been reached. So the skis come off and we do a silly monkey train back inside to get some hot Milo. Once inside proceed to take off 30 wet gloves and 15 helmets. Serve 15 cups of Milo. clean up 5 spilled cups of Milo

1500 After running out of ways to keep 15 five year olds entertained while sitting at a table and getting them all dressed again we head back outside. The rain has stopped, and there is a small riotous crowd of parents forming around the perimeter of the ski school learning area. They are all dry, they've been inside all day.

1515 After getting each child one more go down the hill as a good show tfor he crowd, we finally take off our skis for the last time as parents are let in to collect their children

1515-1530 I sign out the children to their parents. I explain to three sets of parents that no, it would not be a good idea to take your child up the chairlift, they still cannot stop by themselves. One of those parents is upset and angry and asks what we did all day if their kid can't even stop. Chase down two parents who collected their children without signing them out. For the most part parents and children are grateful at this point, but of course it's the one parent that called you worthless for not teaching their kid how to stop that resonates in my head for the rest of the day.

1535 the last child is finally picked up, all my desires to go free skiing after work now shattered, I head back to locker room to play instructor twister again, this time though everyone is soaked and the ski boot stench makes for a pleasant aroma in the room.

1600 Now driving home we all share our daily horror, unbelievable, and funny stories from the day. It's an unintentional attempt to one up each other on who had the worst day. Complain a little about Perisher and share ideas on how to make it better. Personally, I feel a bit of failure, you just can't teach much to a class of 15 five year olds on such a busy, rainy day. Make a mental note that the first person to complain to me about the max group size of 3 children at Canyons is going to get an unwelcome reply from me in the form of laughing in their face.

1630 Stripped of all wet underclothes, I am now asleep in bed. I will wake up in 45 minutes or so, and make some delicious spaghetti. Then lounge around for awhile

2100 Go out with friends, watch silly drunk people do stupid things, and take mental notes on who is hooking up with who tonight, as the only sober person in town I have way more gossip than anyone else!

2300 Go home, drunk people are getting annoying

2330 Sleep, so I can do it all again tomorrow.

Of course, on this particular day no kids just up and ran away.  I didn't loose anyone because they followed the wrong instructor.  No one fell off a chair lift (this only happens while getting on/off, not too serious).  I didn't accidentally feed a kid food he is deathly allergic to.  I didn't have to change any diapers and there were no code yellow/browns to deal with.  So, it was actually a pretty dang good day!  And you know what, I absolutely love it and can't imagine doing anything else!  A child sliding down snow with a huge smile and cute giggles...priceless.