Monday, February 22, 2010

Diary of a Hockey Mom

Hockey season is long. Very long. It starts in October, with 6 am practices on Saturdays. Six am practices mean my daughter and husband leave our house at 5 am. On a Saturday. If I am lucky, the other kids sleep through the garage door opening and closing when they leave. Drew's hockey is at a fixed time of 11 each Saturday from October to December, then again in January thru mid-March. Doug is on the ice for all of Meg's games and practices as the assistant coach and is the head of the program Drew skates in. I spent lots of time alone with the children.

I am not always able to attend the hockey games that Meg plays in. I am not about to pull my sleeping children from bed to leave our house at 5 or 6 am to watch her play. I am grateful that she understands that. We went to many of her Tuesday evening games back in the fall, but it was a huge strain on me and the other kids, as the games were during their bedtime. She had a local tournament over Christmas break and my awesome sister-in-law watched the girls and Drew so that I could enjoy a couple of games without kids running off or climbing up and down the concrete steps and making me nuts.

Over Valentine's weekend Meg had a tournament up north. Originally my parents were going to attend with us, but the stress of sleeping 6 people in a room with 2 double beds got to me and they offered to stay home and keep the girls with them. Let me sum up the weekend for you a-la Mastercard:

Two night stay in an ok-Ramada in Bangor, Maine~ $200

Hats, t-shirts, food, lots of coffee (ice rinks are COLD!)~ $200

Seeing my kid score her first goal in a full-ice game~PRICELESS

Being a hockey parent (and not just mom) means lots of sacrifices~missed family dinners, rushed homework, incredibly stinky clothes to wash. But there is NOTHING like seeing your child score a goal, her first goal, to make you realize that it IS all worth it. I was so proud of her, and her teammates (who tried for 2 1/2 games to help her get that goal), and it made for an awesome weekend.

2 comments:

brooke b said...

WAHOO MEG!!! There is nothing like scoring -- I'll bet she was so proud of herself. AWESOME!!!

PS Had NO idea how early you guys had to get up on weekends. Wowza!

Anonymous said...

Way to go, Meg! That's awesome :)

I had two older cousins who were HUGE into hockey. Both played from 6 years old all the way through their late 20's. I remember my Aunt and Uncle talking about how crazy expensive it was.