by Kim Brown

Here’s what I think about Erich’s climbing and training schedule: it’s ridiculous. It takes a ton of time and when he’s going outside, he’s gone for two or three full days per week. This used to make me crazy. Here is what makes it better: off days.

On his off days, Erich is really here at home with me. He doesn’t go to the bar or play video games, he helps around the house. He cooks dinner with me. He plays with the baby. He does a little yard work. It makes the crazy climbing schedule work for us because his off days are about the family.

A while back we read The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman and figured out that for both of us Quality Time and Acts of Service are our love languages. That is to say, we both feel most loved when we get to just be together or when the other one is doing a little something to help us out. Now that we know that, we make those things off-day priorities, and it’s taken a lot of pressure off of both of us.

I recommend that climbers with families (and that doesn’t have to mean kids, just a sweetie who doesn’t climb with you deserves the same consideration) look at those off days as money in the bank—and the dividends they pay are days at the crag. Which, I believe, is the very definition of win-win.