Welcome back to The Parent Project. When my daughter was born, I promised to share my “insider’s” perspective on what it’s like to be both a skier and a parent and the challenges our industry faces with this group.

Now, I was planning to write about this every 3 months, but with the LO (that’s Babycenter-forum-speak for “little one”) now over 7 months old, I dropped the ball.

But you know who doesn’t drop the ball or rubber keys or spoon or plastic chain?

Her.

Speaking of Her, I like her. A lot.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the balance between skiing and parenthood since my last update.

Lesson #1 – Weekends are the Latest Casualty
From my perspective, casualty isn’t the right word. From the ski industry’s, it is. Without weekends the ski industry would not exist as we know it.

So when I say that when I wake up on Saturday morning and I all I want to do is hang out with my wife and daughter – even if it’s snowing – that’s big. Like, really big. Many core skiers try to find a way to ski anyway. I don’t. I’ve only ridden a lift 7 times this year.

Lesson #2 – Babies Are Still Expensive
A big priority for me and my wife was the ability for her to stay home and raise the LO. So when we looked back over our 2013 finances the other day, we were once again reminded of the sacrifices we have to make to meet that goal.

For other families I’d imagine the sacrifices may come is all sorts of forms. For me, it means less play money, one car, and a very simple lifestyle…all three of which are strikes against skiing.

Lesson #3 – Travel Ain’t So Easy
Speaking of travel, I had these grand plans to sneak in a few runs during a Thanksgiving trip to Utah to visit family. Between lesson #1 (above) and how much work it was to travel, this lunchtime walk in a nearby gully was as close as I got to the mountains.

If I would have kept walking toward toward Little Cottonwood Canyon in the distance, I would have run right into Snowbird and Alta…about 10 hours later.

Lesson #4 – The Harsh Reality
For me, and I’m sure many other parents, being with Kim and Callie is better than skiing.

Seven months in, this is one thing I am absolutely sure of. I love skiing, I love the mountains, I love powder and trees, and I’ll still love the days I get on the mountain this year, but head to head, parenthood wins in a landslide.

See you in a few more months.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.