Mason tries ice skating

I had driven past the sign a zillion times: Family skate – Fridays 6:30pm.

Mason had yet to experience the wonderful world of ice skating.  I thought he was too young until I heard a friend of mine had his kid on an actually hockey team at 3 years old.  Seriously? Future Canuck in training or what?

I know my kid and I really didn’t think he was going to to tolerate sharp wobbly skates on his feet, so I kept putting it off.

I didn’t feel ilke spending most of the evening at home so when picking Mason up at school I announced cheerily that we were going ice skating.  Woohoo!

He seemed excited.  The rink wasn’t open until 6:30 so we had an hour to kill so I figured we’d head to Mc’Donalds for a happy meal and let Mason burn off some energy in the play area.  He told me 3x he wasn’t hungry so I figured I’d have dinner (blah) and then we’d head to the rink.  (at least my salad was good…).

I was a wee bit excited to try this new experience with Mason.  I packed extra warm cords and a fleece pullover for him.  We rented skates + helmet for Mason and skates for me.  Total cost $10.00.  We handed in our shoes in exchange for the new gear.  Mason’s ‘hockey’ skates were adorable.  Size 8.  They said that’s the smallest size they had (either available or period – not sure).  I got Mason’s skates on and had flash backs of my Dad lacing up my skates sooo tight.  I reliazed it was the first time I’d put skates on a child before.  I got my skates on and wobbled a bit.

I know how to skate, I took skating lessons as a child and went skating um never passed age 12.  Okay once, in Edmonton in 2001 and on a frozen lake.   I hated every minute of it.  The ice was bumpy (no zamboni) and it was freezing.  That’s the last time I skated. 

So now I am coaching Mason how to walk on these wobble skate shoes and he seems unsure.  He holds onto my hand tight.  As we approach the gates, I have a slight panic.  Am I actually going to be able to skate after all this time AND hold Mason up? I sat Mason on a bench while I observed a Dad getting his little guy (same age as Masey) ready for a skate lesson.  I repeated everything he did.  Put kid down, go on ice, skate to those metal bar thingies.  He passed one to me.  I got Mason walking on the ice and he turned into Bambi.  His little legs splayed.  I put him onto the bar and he held on for dear life.  I then adjusted him so he was in the middle and I had my arms underneath his so he had better support.  This bad posture was going to kill my back. 

I glanced at the 4 year olds zooming around us and the Mom & Dad’s skating around the rink.  We were cordoned off to a section so we didn’t crash into the pro skaters.  For a minute I wanted to ditch Mason and go for a skate around the rink just to see how well I could skate, I didn’t get the opportunity.

Mason continued to Bambi while I pushed us around.  I went slow,  I went fast.  I had no idea how to teach him to skate.  I reassured him he was doing awesome and encouraged him to keep moving his feet to maintain balance.  He learned that if he wedged his feet under the front bar that he wouldn’t have to work to keep upright and could go for a nice ride.  Then he put BOTH feet on the lower bar and away we went for a little spin.  After what must have been 10 minutes, he declared he had enough and wanted to go  back.  No whining or crying, he just wasn’t into it.

Fair enough.  I was a bit disappointed but it was his first time.

I kept saying, “You did really good and I’m glad you tried it, we’ll try again another day” and then thought of asking for my money back.  $10.00 gone for not even 10 minutes.

I saw a sign that said today was the last day for family skate…I guess we got in just in the nick of time.

I’m glad Mason had a chance to at least try out the skates and experience the environment.  One day we’ll try

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