Hockey Parents

a typical scene from any hockey rink

Take a step into any hockey rink during non school hours and you'll usually see the same spectacle.  A lot of happy, sweaty kids and a lot of parents drinking Tim Hortons and hauling their kid's stuff around. 

For those 6 a.m. games!

Without parental (or adult) support, no child could ever play hockey.  The sheer logistics of getting one's equipment to and from the rink is daunting enough, but add in the cost and time lines, then you see that unless one (or preferably both) parents are on on board, then hockey remains out of reach for an unsupported child. 

If you read about the backgrounds of any pro hockey player, you will definitely see a common thread of parental involvement, but more importantly of parental sacrifice.  For a child to succeed in any sport, it usually requires parental sacrifice, but you'll find it even more so in hockey.  A kid can take a soccer ball and walk down to the local park to practice for hours on end, but to play hockey you need a parent willing to chauffeur the kid and the equipment back and forth to the rink.  Ice time on the weekends is at a premium, so frequently it means very early mornings for both the kids and the parents.

It's not too bad watching your kid play a game, but watching them practice is pretty tedious.  I remember Jamie's weekly practice were just far enough away from home that it didn't make any sense dropping him off and returning home, then picking him up later, since by the time you'd drive home you simply had to turn around and return to the rink to pick him up.  Thus you would sit around and watch him practice, drinking the requisite coffee and conducting desultory conversations with the other parents.

Of course there are the tournaments and the hockey training camps all of which require parental involvement, and more importantly parental time.

Even Madie's house league means ferrying her back and forth (thankfully she's old enough to carry her own equipment).

Why do parent's do it?  All you have to see is the look on a kid's face while they're playing to know why you do it.

In the end it's really quite simple.  If the kid loves it, a parent should do whatever they can to help their kid enjoy such an incredible sport.  If the kid doesn't love the game and a parent only has them in to live vicariously, then that's wrong, respect your kid, let your own dreams go and let the child find his/her own true passion.

I know I did.