Love + eMotion: Rock Climbing to the Rescue, Part 2

About ten minutes into Kyra’s birthday party, the staff at Alaska Rock Gym equipped ten six-year-olds and one two-year-old with harness and climbing shoes. Every kid, including Ethan, sat spellbound to the rock climbing wall where Carrie Barcom began her instruction: “This is not Bouncin’ Bears.”

She smiled reassuringly at the kids and repeated several times, “I know this is going to be really really hard, but please try not to run here.”

After some more safety procedures, Carrie rounded up three staff belayers and asked, “Who wants to go first?”

Without hesitation, four kids started to climb. Kyra was one of them. She had no expression on her face, as if she was simply executing a daily routine, like putting on socks.

All the parents looked in amazement at each other for none of these families had ever climbed before and yet, their kid seemed to handle the sport with ease. First one up and first one down, Kyra landed on the mat and shrugged.

Remembering the first time I ever climbed and how worried I was about my performance, I showered her with praises. Then, I asked her gently, “Did you have fun?”

She flashed me her trickster smile before joining her friends on the lower floor of the gym for more challenging routes. With 6,000 square feet of climbing terrain in the Alaska Rock Gym, I lost track of the number of times Kyra climbed and swung her way down.

My attention was focused on Ethan. At first, my little man could not wait to follow his sister up the wall. With pudgy hands on his waist and his belly sticking out, his attitude seemed to say, Come on, what are we waiting for?

Ethan made it up about as far as Kyra and then he froze. I noticed his lower lip drop and his head fold into his chest as he tried to hide the tears that dripped down his cheek.

Carrie said he did really well, but Ethan didn’t think so. When he got down, he stuck his left forefinger in his mouth and stared at the floor, probably wishing he could bury his head like an ostrich.

Wrapping my arms around my son, I whispered in his ear, “Don’t worry. You are just like me.” In college, I rock climbed with a mountaineering club and nearly always felt like crying, baked under the sun with scraped knuckles, knees, and ego.

“I believe that indoor climbing is a great way to not only gain strength and conditioning, but to also challenge yourself and overcome fears and inhibitions," said Siri Moss, one of the gym's owners. "It is a great way for teens and adults to participate in not only the movement of climbing up the wall, but also the aspects of team and leadership through belaying and working with a partner.”

That afternoon, I witnessed Kyra’s friends and their parents conquering fears and inhibitions. Many of the kids climbed just so they could leap wildly into the air and fling their limbs at gravity. About mid-way through the party, most of the parents decided to give climbing a try too. Carla, one of the belayers who has worked at the gym for the past five years, commented that rock climbing parties are more successful when the parents climb because then they realize that what they are asking their kids to do isn’t that easy.

When she said this to me, I wondered if I stopped rock climbing because I thought it was too hard. After all, I never trained at a climbing gym. I just threw myself on climbing trips and thought it would be a piece of cake.

At Kyra’s party, I climbed just long enough to get a photo of our family on the wall. When the gym opened for regular business, I saw families trickling in and wondered whether I could convince mine to do the same.

Kyra and Ethan are having a ball with Mom and Dad
on an indoor climbing wall.
Photo credit: Lailing Green

Relaxing on Kyra’s bed that evening, I tucked each kid on either side of me and asked them whether they liked rock climbing. I worried that maybe I had inadvertently done what I swore I would never do to my kids: force them to do something I had failed at.

Driving her monster truck up and down my belly, Kyra did not say anything at first. Then, she wrapped her whole body around mine and peppered my cheek with kisses.

“You are the best Mommee in the whole world.”

Ethan rubbed his nose against mine and said, “We love climbing!”

“You do?”

He nodded rapidly. “I climb. And then I cry.” He frowned, remembering that moment. Then his eyes lit up, “And then I swing. Daddee catch me. My Daddee is strong!” He babbled on and on about how he wanted his birthday party at Alaska Rock Gym too until he fell asleep.

I slept pretty well that night, knowing that my kids were not too young for a rock climbing party and that they had gained confidence and surprisingly, so did I. Confidence to rock climb again. Confidence to throw kid parties that are not a bore for parents. Confidence that I am not so bad at this parenting thing.