Advise on taking a toddler ( 3yo ) skiing

Hello

I am going skiing at Christmas with family and friends. 10 people in all. We are going to a small resort in Germany called Hindelang.
I am hoping for some advise from people who have taken their young children skiing before. My son is 3yo and of course has never skied before.
We have booked him in for some lessons with an instructor and have made provisions to do sledging in case he does not take to skiing, but any helpful info would be great! Cheers Gavin :)

Two issues.
My children all started to ski at 2.For a child the joy is to be with parents and share in activitie.Skiing with child means;walking up hill,hiding in trees, walking with skis, sliding with dad and oh yes,,taking that chocolate drink. 15 minutes per activity is maximum.
Let us be honest , ski instruction at 3! It is baby sitting.The muscles have not yet deveoped enough. The bones and joints are still in the formative stages! In new and "tense" situation child needs mother or father not stranger! You introduce child to skiing activities ( I stress activities) not skiing techniques!
Get someone who just loves playing with children ( in skiing context) rather than "teach" to ski!!

The second issue is you and others. Will this be a "holiday" for you and others! A three year old needs attention in a strange place! My wife and I would share ski ticket. I would ski in morning while wife visited the chairs, the ski shop etc.... Then in the afternoon I would take care of "budding skier"!

These are your holidays also. What the child will remember is the "feelings, attitude" you have on this trip. If you are tense or uneasy about " his/her presence" among all adults,,then consider other options!

My children now thank me for their ski holidays but you must remember we centered our activities around their needs. Will you be able to do the same with a group of adults!

Hi Pavelski,

Thanks for your response. All good advise and it will be heeded. There are 4 children in our group, so we are ready for a child friendly holiday, but my obvious concerns are for the youngest

Gavin

Totally agree with Pavelski; go and have a different kind of winter holiday. If you centre your holiday around the little ones, the only person having more fun than them will be you! The more they enjoy their first experiences of mountains and snow, the sooner they'll be hooked on it all.

They are magic memories - first steps, first foot on a ski, first turns, first carves and then those first turns off-piste... 8)

And before you know it you'll be having to hold them back from hucking the cliffs with their buddies (at least that'll be your excuse when you can barely keep up with them any more!).

Does anyone have any positive experiences from a skiing holiday with young children?? :O(

The toughest thing with our dayghter (then 4), was getting her to wear appropriate clothing for skiing. You would have thought I was trying to wrap her feet in sack cloth instead of the nice soft high tech ski socks we tried to have her wear.

Thermal underwear resulted in tears of torture. In the end we found some fleece pants/leggings that were soft enough for her and we gave in to let her wear a cotton vest under a fleece top.

If you're buying kids clothing specially for skiing on the trip, it might be good to idea to test the tollerance factor first.