Hyrum Conquers the Mountain

On Friday, Hyrum went skiing for his first time. Corey has taken the kids skiing a few times up at Alta for the "Ski for Free after 3" special that they have. He has taken Joe, Mel, Ethan, and Wesley all before, but each time Hyrum has refused to participate, crying "It's too scary!" Friday around 2 Corey was at work and called to asked if he could take the kids - Joe was at scouts, Mel had achievement days, so I said it would just be Ethan and Wes, unless I could talk Hyrum into it. I got the snow pants and winter gloves out and told the others to get ready as I tried to bribe Hyrum with everything and anything...

"If you go, maybe Dad will buy you a Ben 10 watch?"
"He won't."
"Ok, I'll buy you a Ben 10 watch!"
"No."
"I'll give you ten dollars!"
"No."
"What do you want - name your price..."
"I'm not going skiing."

I gave up and helped Ethan and Wes finish getting dressed. I thought Corey could just grab Hyrum and force him into the car and make him go, but I also know that if Hyrum isn't a willing participant, there would be no way it would be a good experience - force doesn't work on him. So as I was helping them get ready, Hyrum asked if he could play the Wii.

"Nope. We're not doing anything fun here at home today."
"But then I'll be bored!"
"Well... then you should go skiing."
"NO! (a few seconds pause...) But I want to do something fun... How come they get to do something fun and I don't?!"
"You CAN do something fun! Hyrum, if you want to do something fun, you can go skiing! But if you don't want to do anything fun, you can stay home with me."

We went on in exchanges like this for a while, tried to resolve concerns - Looking out the window at the steep mountain sides at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon, I thought he probably had a wrong idea of what "skiing down the mountain" would be like - I promised him it wouldn't be from the top on the mountain out there to the bottom - it was a small short hill, like sledding. He was crying and very sad, but finally, in tears and with a nose that was running, he gave up and said "Fine. I'll go skiing!" (So now I know - bribes of toys and money don't work, but his fear of being bored is great, even greater than his fear of skiing! I'll remember that for next time we're trying to get him to do something...)

Right then Corey walked in and he was so excited Hyrum was going to come, we helped him get ready, and quickly they were off.

Two hours later, Hyrum came home with a big smile. He conquered another of his many fears. He's our little cowardly lion. He's built like a tank - he should be the strongest and bravest of our children, but ironically needs much coaxing. He took a good step today. He was afraid cause he didn't know what it would be like, and this evening confessed that skiing wasn't scary. Another victory for experience!