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being a dad a climbing lots (Read 23772 times)

SA Chris

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#25 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 09:55:31 am
With all these acronyms it's getting like mumsnet. Or is it netmums?

galpinos

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#26 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 09:59:59 am
MNers - MumsNet-ers?

lagerstarfish

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#27 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 10:39:48 am
don't try to pretend that you're not all Mumsnet regulars

lol


thank fuck I'm a dad, so don't have to do all that acronym shit

lol

SWOI = sex without intent (to conceive)

lol

mark s

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#28 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 11:22:52 am
Whilst searching the name ophelia on google before L.O ;-) arrived.I got linked to that site.comments like nice name but no because of her fate in hamlet.also they would never dare take them swimming.what a bunch of neurotic bitches

lagerstarfish

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#29 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 11:23:49 am
L O fucking L

SA Chris

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#30 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 11:28:03 am
Whilst searching the name ophelia on google before L.O ;-) arrived.I got linked to that site.comments like nice name but no because of her fate in hamlet.also they would never dare take them swimming.what a bunch of neurotic bitches

Sounds about right. WaCoS (What A Crock of Shit)

slackline

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#31 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 11:41:52 am
what a bunch of neurotic bitches

 :lol: Its women, talking about babies/children, what do you expect?

lagerstarfish

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#32 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 11:47:30 am
oooh,
you're asking for a puntering there Slackers...

not from me; I agree with you

UKBoulderingDads is far more useful

Big Dave

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#33 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 12:20:31 pm
For those who have taken their little ones to the crag with them, what would you say is a good age to do this from?

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#34 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 12:31:31 pm
I can't be doing with all those acronyms.. but seconding what lots of people have said. I definitely feel bad about taking a day out climbing when the little one is so small (~1yr now) and leaving the wife to tend, especially as she has to do that day in day out. 
I tend to just fit short bouldering sessions in for an hour or so when I can. Having a small wall in the garage is a great help and lets you get that burn, although it's a bit depressing when your mates are in your garage more than you, "alright boys, what you trying? can't stop, just popping in for the car seat.."

I've been surfing a lot more though, feel like I get more done with an an hours surfing than bouldering, but then i do live 5mins from the beach which helps

My take on it is I'll just get back into it more once he's a bit older and I have some more time.  Next year hoping to get a camper van again which I reckon will be great for both crag sitting and trips further afield avec bebe

SA Chris

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#35 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 12:48:34 pm
For those who have taken their little ones to the crag with them, what would you say is a good age to do this from?

Less than 6 months; piece of piss, just sit and stare at their hand all day. Main concern is feeding and making sure they don't get too hot / cold. Once they are crawling it depends on where; if it's flat and there is one person to tend child (or in your case children) full time then you can be doing it then. Once they are up and walking but have no real understanding of their own safety you need to be really careful of them falling over edges, tripping over boulders etc. Usually crags have a good supply of dirt / mud for them to poke / smack / eat which they seem to like. Once they have a bit better understanding of thier own mortality I'm hoping it gets a bit easier? (i'm not at this stage yet).



result of a good mud smacking episode

lagerstarfish

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#36 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 01:04:16 pm
I can't be doing with all those acronyms..

Just in case anyone is so sleep deprived that they can't filter out my obscure intentions from the other shit I post; I was only taking the piss out of Mumsnet-speak with all those acronyms.

Bonjoy

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#37 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 01:08:40 pm
I'm lucky in having a climbing wife and we both work three day weeks, which means we both get to spend loads of time with Spike and go climbing guilt free only slightly less frequently than before. The main downside is that I don't get as much chance to climb with Fi as I used to and both being on short weeks we don't have much excess cash. Could you drop your hours/days at work?
As mentioned font trips are very child friendly, especially with other climbing families.

LucyB

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#38 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 01:25:00 pm
 :agree:

Both working part-time is great for managing to get a bit of guilt-free time. I reckon that most people could live quite easily on 80% of their wages, with a very small amount of money-saving thoughtfulness. The trouble is that you may well end up doing your full job in 4 days, for 80% of the money. (Speaking from experience here, I did the 4 day thing before kids, when I was competing and doing a PG Dip).

Mind you, it's a whole different ball game second time round. We're both really struggling to do anything we want. But then, second baby doesn't sleep, I've struggled to recover more physically this time, and we've been through some fairly major life shit since he was born - major house building work, bereavement, redundancy, retraining etc (oh, and planning a wedding  :)) so hopefully things will settle down soon and we'll be back out on rock!

SA Chris

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#39 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 01:58:45 pm

Both working part-time is great for managing to get a bit of guilt-free time.

Part of our medium term plan. Hopefully get it right by the time he's at school full time, so extra mid week climbing days :)

tommytwotone

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#40 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 03:37:06 pm
Now that I climb with a family I've noticed a few things that seem to help...the main one being taking their son out with him since birth, so now he's used to being at the crag.

Getting a tame friend to come along is beneficial, then two of you can climb/spot while the other one keeps the little one amused

Taking some stuff to keep said little one amused, favourite toys etc - pots and pans are a current favourite

Getting the nipper to have a kip at the crag will give you a couple of hours where you can get some stuff done

Crag choice is pretty important, you don't want to be doing long walk ins when you're trying to carry your kid

Bouldering as opposed to doing routes seems the most user-friendly form of climbing, then you can always drop what you're doing if your child gets upset / falls over / needs a feed

Beastmaker / home board seems like a good idea as you get get a quick session in during nap times / after they've gone ot sleep

Agree on the "climbing with other climbers who have kids" thing too - whenever we've done that it's always gone well

Just a few observations from an outsider's point of view, but I've seen that having a child isn't really a barrier to carrying on climbing, you just need to be a bit smarter about how you go about it!


Jaspersharpe

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#41 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 04:18:12 pm

I always meant to drag the BIL along to assist, but he's a lazy cunt.

FO you T.

SA Chris

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#42 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 04:26:18 pm
It sucks a bit that there aren't many child friendly crags around here. Sea cliffs have numerous logistical problems, not the least being every time K sees the sea he either wants to jump in or throw stones at it. Gritstone climbing is so much easier.

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#43 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 04:43:09 pm
I actually became a climber (again) through being a dad.

The story so far: I gave up climbing in the late 90s in the course of the breakup of my first marriage.

Moved near to the Alps a few years later due to work, did some snowboarding & mountain biking, met (future) Wife #2 who had never lived near mountains before but quickly decided she liked big, challenging, scrambly hillwalks. Still no intention to resume climbing as such, however.

Fast forward another few years. Wife #2 and her friend, neither of them climbers, decide to take the kids to the wall. The boys, aged 5 or 6, enjoy it, start going regularly, I get roped in  :lol: as an autobelay. One thing leads to another. After a while Wife #2 decides to join in too, goes to an introductory course at the wall and loves it. I potter about for a year or so setting up topropes for the family on easy stuff, but eventually get bitten by Ambition again as was probably inevitable.

So: climbing as a dad. Where I live I have the Alps an hour or two in one direction, the Frankenjura in the other. It is a great place to be a climber if you have plenty of free time and the flexibility to get out for a weekend at short notice when the weather forecast is good. If, on the other hand, you have to plan childcare way in advance and then spend the week before each of the precious handful of possible alpine weekends in nailbiting tension hitting refresh on the DAV weather forecast every hour, then it can get very frustrating. And within easy afternoon/evening distance there's nothing. The nearest is probably Kochel, but that's a good forty minutes each way assuming no traffic jams and the good stuff starts well above my current level.

So I'm pretty much resigned for now to being a climbing wall climber who occasionally goes to the Alps in summer or sport climbing in spring/autumn. The local walls are good enough that it's fun; I do the odd bouldering comp for laughs and at least try to ensure that when I do get on a big route, my ability to do the individual moves isn't the problem. And in a few years when my son is a little more independent I'll have more free time (and/or a rope gun)

Haven't tried bouldering with my son much yet, but I'm on childcare duty for the last two weeks of the summer hols, and thinking of a boys' outing to the Peak and/or Zillertal.

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#44 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 07:14:07 pm
As Pantontino will no doubt concur, I am a bit of a climbing obsessive, however, I also love my family and couldn't let my obsession get in the way...

When Logan came along, I went through all the usual stereo types, new routes named in honour, bouldering Everytime mum and child were day kipping, regardless of weather, hoarding brownie points etc.

When we discovered we were expecting Ethan and Dylan, I realised the game was up. I jettisoned all fanciful prospective new route projects(except two precious items), forswore the drill and settled into a regime of a bit of play at work (Beacon Climbing Centre) and some real rock one a month.

The Reality is that I occasionally get out more often than that. I'm still giving away projects on my blog, but I'm allowing some minor obsession back into my life, and maybe some will bear fruit. I even have allowed myself to to gather bouldering projects again, safe in the knowledge that at least I can feed them to the blog.

The downside is although I can stay sufficiently strong, I'm getting out of puff quite quickly nowadays and occasionally need a lie down after long walk ins.

The positives are I have huge reserves of berserker-like enthusiasm and three utterly bonkers boys.

hosey

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#45 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 08:05:09 pm
I actually became a climber (again) through being a dad.

The story so far:

Good story that  :)

mark s

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#46 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 09:55:17 pm
The downside is although I can stay sufficiently strong, I'm getting out of puff quite quickly nowadays and occasionally need a lie down after long walk ins.

hosey

strengths not a prob as going the gym has helped.

Percy B

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#47 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 24, 2011, 10:56:43 pm
  and doing a PG Dip


Now I've lived with you for 17 years, and I can't believe

a) you can spell PG Tips wrong, and
b) you prefer Roibos tea anyway (you bloody hippy)!

Please don't moderate me again.....

SA Chris

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#48 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 25, 2011, 08:34:21 am
b) you prefer Roibos tea anyway (you bloody hippy)!

Spelling correction fail - it's Rooibos!

lagerstarfish

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#49 Re: being a dad a climbing lots
August 25, 2011, 09:41:47 am
I didn't know that Ryobi made tea. What's the battery life like?

 

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