My name is Cindy. I’m a mother, an outdoor enthusiast, a trail runner, a Mountain Rescue volunteer and a part time teacher. I also work part time in my husband’s award winning outdoor business, Adventure.ie and I love to cook healthy, nourishing meals for all the family. As an outdoor enthusiast, you could say that I’m a Jack of all trades and master of none! I’m not the most talented in any discipline, I haven’t the time (or possibly the single mindedness) for that, I simply enjoy the variety, the inner peace and the freedom that the mountain environment offers.
Despite the obvious joy and meaning to life that children bring, becoming parents, very definitely clipped our mountain wings! Being climbing partners as well as life partners presented its own dilemma. Do you do the dirt? And by that I mean in the climbing partner sense! Do you abandon your other half, leaving them to wipe up snot, mediate fights over Lego and then deal with the relationship fallout that might entail? Do you link up with other climbers at the same parenting stage, bring the kids with you and take turns? Do you find a minder/family member who can accompany you on trips and take the childcare hit? Or do you just take a step back whilst the kids are young? After all, the mountains aren’t going anywhere right? Right?
We’ve tried most of these methods with varying degrees of success. Personally, I found it particularly difficult to focus on climbing when the consequences of failure would mean devastating consequences on my young family, bad enough to lose one parent on a rope… but both? Maybe it’s a mother thing. Even cragging was a pain in the butt as invariably one of them would be whining that they’re bored or hungry or both. Not the ideal scenario with one parent leading and the other belaying!
So, we pulled back a bit from what we wanted and took everyone’s needs into consideration. After all, isn’t that what parenthood is about? They wouldn’t be young forever, so shouldn’t we make the most of the time we have with them and be ambassadors for the outdoor world we cherish? This was the system we embraced and have found the most fulfilling for us as a family.
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