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Alison Skirtboston

Skirt! Boston editor

Skirt! is evidence that the universe is paying attention: I spent the last six years at mach speed, whether finishing college (Emerson) while writing full time for Boston Globe West (2001-2004) or editing the Boston Parents’ Paper during the day while holding down the steady gig writing for Globe ...

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When Hardcore Hits the Fan

Alison, editor

I have girls and I want them to be tough. No need to read between the lines there. I encourage strenuous activities, whether sports or deep thought, because life is not for wussies.

This is what I did with the babies (14yo twins) over April vacation: a 6-mile hike in the wilderness of the White Mountains that included snowshoeing in 3 feet of mush and crossing brooks swollen with snowmelt (not easy with the huge packs we carried).

And here we are, just about dead on arrival.

We got to the Appalachian Mountain Club hut at dusk (just after spotting bear tracks in the snow), warmed up Spaghetti-Os and crashed... then got up and hiked out the next morning.

So, what’s a hard-core mom to do when one of the babies wants to go to Adventure Camp for two weeks... and mom finds out that she’s THE ONLY GIRL who signed up for that particular camp?? Hmmmm??? A little gut-check there.

Daddy wasn’t much help. When I asked him about the mindset of boys her age, he said only “they think about it a lot but haven’t figured out what to do about it yet.” Yeah, I hope he’s right. He also taught her a few neck-breaking moves in case she needed to subdue someone – or perhaps save the boys from an attacking bear. We stopped at a bookstore on our way to the camp and I got her a copy of “How to Survive in the Woods” as a handy reference. I suppose she could burn it if she needed to start a signal fire, too... 

We dropped her at camp yesterday. She’ll be hiking a chunk of the Appalachian Trail for the next 2 weeks with the pack of boys and one female counselor. Gulp. Time to stand behind my convictions that I haven’t been raising wussies... or time to recon and follow the group into the wilderness?