No, I don't mean to sound overly judgmental and yes, I did grow up in an area where there was pretty much snow on the ground all the time from December to March. So maybe sledding etiquette just came naturally to kids where I grew up.
That said, I'm continually stunned by the total lack of common sense shown at our local sledding hill. Maybe not so much by the kids - after all, most kids only think about themselves first and often lack consideration for what's going on around them. But I don't understand how parents can just stand by and watch as their kids trudge up the center of the hill, in everyone's way, instead of directing their kids up the sides of the hill out of the sledders' path. Or how a parent can not be concerned when their kid lolls around at the bottom of the hill, sometimes for minutes on end, again in everyone's path, endangering themselves and the other sledders coming down. Huh? Do you not see that your kid's head is about to be slammed by the sledful of kids coming down at 25 mph?
We will still go sledding there, as it is one of the few hills around town, but it's hard to explain to my son why I make him walk the long way around up the hill while so many of the other kids just wander up wherever they please, completely oblivious. Thank God for the couple parents I do see also instructing their kids to get up right away at the bottom of the hill and walk up out of everyone's path. It just seems like common sense to me.
So, is it just where I'm living now or does this happen elsewhere too?
Actually, agreed - where i grew up there were no parents present where we sledded, so it was definitely survival of the fittest! Also, it was a pretty narrow hill, so only one or two kids could go down the hill at one time, enforcing common sense.
Last year, one guy tried to warn one of the lingering kids out of the way so he wouldn't get hurt and you have never seen anything like the way this kid's father jumped down the guy's throat. It nearly came to a fistfight! Over sledding. Sigh.
Unfortunately, I can already foresee what's going to happen at this place where we currently sled. There is going to be an accident and someone is going to sue and there will be no more sledding there, which is a shame because it is only one of two places I know of where there is enough of a hill to sled in this area.
Well, anyway, at least I got to vent about it on here, even if I did come off sounding a bit judgmental! ;)
I grew up sledding too!
There were NEVER any parents around. I think we learned pretty quick to either stay out of the way or risk being slammed, hard.
<sigh> another sign of the times :-(
When I was a kid, we went sledding 'wherever'. There were no formally designated sledding hills. There was little to no parental supervision, as parents sent their kids off to play and did not tag along. Kids didn't get to go sledding until they were old enough to figure it out on their own and strong enough to drag their own sled back up the hill.
Where I live now, there is a great sledding hill with multiple paths including one for snowboards, and toboggan runs. The toboggan runs are supervised by park staff when open. The hills are not. Kids learn quick to walk up the side and get out of the way, because they eventually get run over or knocked down.
Probably, a little less adult intervention would be a good thing for speeding up the learning process. lol
I grew up sledding, & your rules....hmm, pretty much didn't exist.
From a safety standpoint, they make sense. But where we sledded, the hill was wide enough that you didn't have to worry about getting hit. In fact, many families would have given up at the thought of having to walk all the waaaay over to the side to walk back up!
Just saying.....it depends on the individual setting! Not the generation!
how on earth do kids learn anything any more?
'sledding etiquette' should come about by kids sledding and figuring it out.
micro-managing something like sledding.
huh.
khairete
S.
We get people here from snowy areas who don't know how to freaking walk or ride a bike on trails. I think you have to understand, not everyone knows these unspoken "rules." I do sometimes get frustrated when we are walking on the correct side, and a person on a bike nearly runs us over. However, I have often learned that they are new to the area and just don't know. It seems like common sense to me, but I am used to it. To them, it's foreign. If you put me on a snowy hill, then I wouldn't know what the heck to do.
Seriously, if you don't like it don't go. If you continue to go knowing how it is, you don't really have a right to complain. Ya know?
There is just a lack of common courtesy these days. People aren't teaching their kids manners anymore. I am always completely astounded when I do hear a parent correcting a child's behavior or reminding them to use manners. It happens so infrequently these days!
My kids are 7 and 10. We've been sledding every winter since before they could walk. Sometimes every weekend. I think it is obvious that when you get to the bottom of the hill you should get out of the way. I instruct my kids to do this every time. I've been reminding them for years. They still stand around at the bottom. They aren't dumb, but they just don't seem to get it. Fortunately they have never been in an accident. I no longer accompany them to the hill, but I remind them to "Get the hell out of the way!" as they go to the hill. I watch from the shelter as a sit by the fireplace and read my book. They are pretty good about walking up the side, but they still lollygag at the bottom. Another hill we go to there is no obvious place to walk up because it is a river bank and it goes on forever, so there is no place to walk up that is out of anyones path.
i think it's just a common problem when you get too many people in any space. sounds a lot like the traffic problems i encounter every single day - growing up in the country we NEVER had people act like i see them do, every day here. but then when we went sledding, it was on an old tractor path in the middle of nowhere. i avoid those crowded anthills you are describing, like the plague. getting too many people together in one place is always obnoxious...i think "we" are just inherently too self-absorbed to look out for each other.
I would not know the first thing about snow anything.
I would be hopeless,, Is there a handbook?
How do you all learn, did your parents teach you?
Does the news paper publish the etiquette? I would be one of those people.. I know here i Austin, they are always explaining how to ride a bike on our public streets. How to fly your kite in public parks and at the big Kite contest..
we had this same conversation this weekend. Yes the hill we were on was plenty wide enough but juds arent the best at steering and honeslty you shouldnt have to be worried about slamming into a kid J. playing at the bottom or wlaking up the center when you';re going down. my 6 year odl is taught to walk to the side and then up and not play at the bottom.
Its a safety issue. some sleds are wood or have metal and at that speed a colission could be dangerous PLUS it slows everyone up waiting for others to get out of the way
I grew up in a large suburban town outside of a city, there were tons of kids at our local sledding hill. There were parents, but it was still completely survival of the fittest. Not only at that sledding hill, but at a lot of places where we went as kids around there...parks, museums, skating rinks. If you wanted a turn, you had to be aggressive. I never remember parents intervening. If I or one of my siblings got slammed on the sledding hill, we'd just recover and then be on the look out next time, I don't think we ever even told an adult...I'm not saying it was right but it's the way it was.
I now live in a small town where it is the complete opposite, kids seem to be very helpful and considerate of each other. If kids were getting slammed on the sledding hill around here, parents would be furious. I literally think the police would shut down the sledding hill. Where I grew up skating, if I fell down kids would be jumping over me...here where I bring my son, kids stop to help him up. It's nice and still leaves me in awe. I think it just depends on the location.
My husband was just talking about this on Sunday! He said when he was young people would walk to the side. But even worse to him than walking up the middle of the hill were people who sledded down the hill 5 or 6 across (arms linked), and would then march back up the hill in that long line across of people.
Of course me being from Texas would have had no idea about sledding etiquette, but I'm not usually alone in taking them :)
