Skating

Skating continues to be a lot of work for me. The used skates I found for Viva did not have good ankle support so I returned them. At that time I took B's skates in to be sharpened. I bought a punch card good for 12 sharpenings, but then I panicked and thought we might never use 12 sharpenings. What if the children didn't continue to take skate lessons after this spring and we only rented skates after they grew out of their current skates? The nice gentleman at the store let me cancel the card and just pay for the single sharpening. 

After returning Viva's skates I went to a different skate store (it was my second visit there) and looked at their used selection. I couldn't decide if any would work. I made a third trip bringing Viva with me. She wasn't wearing any socks in her boots, so trying on skates wasn't easy. Nonetheless I think we determined that none of the skates in our price range worked. 

The next time I took the children skating Bentley complained that his skates were too slippery on the ice. I made Viva try out Jake's skates with two pairs of socks on. Jake's are almost too small for him, so if they would work for Viva I could buy Jake new (used) skates and give his skates to her. Jake was traumatized by the idea of different skates. I couldn't decide if Jake's skates would work for Viva or not. I then had to rent skates for Viva so all three kids could skate. It is not fun helping three young children put on and tighten up their skates. It's very time consuming!

Our second skating lesson with coach Ann went well for the boys and not so well for Viva. Viva was having a bad attitude day. She was mad that her lesson was after the boys' lesson. Fortunately the coach is very experienced and could deal with her appropriately. I and Viva had a discussion on wasting one's skating lesson sulking. The coach gets paid whether or not the children skate. 

If finding skates is this hard what would it be like to participate in a sport with lots of pieces of required equipment?!

On the plus side, my new skates are working well. I'm enjoying skating. If it weren't for the grandchildren, I might never have skated again. Grandchildren are the secret to staying young at heart.