My wife and I recently had an opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons. Our two regular, daytime childcare providers chose the same week for their summer vacations. Instead of scrambling to find replacements, we decided to take a little break ourselves and go to a nearby hot springs retreat for a few days.
While relaxing in one of the warm pools, I had an interesting conversation with a man who had been a ski instructor for over 15 years. The resort where he teaches in Utah has some kind of harness that allows the instructor to ski with a child as young as 2-3 years old. The harness gives the child the feeling of skiing freely while ensuring his or her safety. The instructor is always connected and supporting the child.
In this way a child grows up knowing that he or she can ski. They never have the awkwardness that older children or adults experience when putting skis on for the first time. Their bodies and brains get programmed early on to believe that skiing is normal, natural, and that they know how to do it.
The next morning, I took my daughter Ella for a walk in her new stroller. As we meandered alongside a gurgling creek, I noticed that she was...