When your kids come up to you and say " Mom and Dad i think i want to play hockey" you think it is a good idea. All parents when they start out as a " Hockey Parent" think it is going to be easy. What people don't realize is that your whole entire life is wrapped around hockey. Even when your younger your gone every weekend playing hockey games.
I started playing when i was five so staying busy was a good thing. By age 8 i realized that I really didn't have any friends from school. All my friends were little boys from my hockey team. Still I was young so i thought it was cool to be around the boys. Then I hit age 14 and everyone else were going to the movies with their boyfriends when I was playing international in Canada. If I wasn't doing that then i was at some tournament. All my friends were my hockey friends.
As I got older hockey got more intese and you really never had a weekend off. You just don't do the sport for the season, when the season is over you have to go to camps and train.
When your in the season you get overwhelmed with being gone all the time and not having a break. Then your out of the hockey season you wish that you back into it. In the summer it is the worst all I ever want to do is just play puck. There is times that i will dream about playing. I will wake up and really think that i just played. Hockey is just not a game it is a life sytle.
So when your kids ask you to play; don't compare it to any other normal sport. Hockey is not just a normal sport it is one of the most intese sports out there. I thank my parents for letting me play hockey. Hockey has made me the person that I am today. For example having to move away from your partents to play you really have to grow up. Your by yourself so you have to take care of yourself.
I would not have my life anyother way! Hockey is my life and i do eat, sleep, and breathe hockey.
I started playing when i was five so staying busy was a good thing. By age 8 i realized that I really didn't have any friends from school. All my friends were little boys from my hockey team. Still I was young so i thought it was cool to be around the boys. Then I hit age 14 and everyone else were going to the movies with their boyfriends when I was playing international in Canada. If I wasn't doing that then i was at some tournament. All my friends were my hockey friends.
As I got older hockey got more intese and you really never had a weekend off. You just don't do the sport for the season, when the season is over you have to go to camps and train.
When your in the season you get overwhelmed with being gone all the time and not having a break. Then your out of the hockey season you wish that you back into it. In the summer it is the worst all I ever want to do is just play puck. There is times that i will dream about playing. I will wake up and really think that i just played. Hockey is just not a game it is a life sytle.
So when your kids ask you to play; don't compare it to any other normal sport. Hockey is not just a normal sport it is one of the most intese sports out there. I thank my parents for letting me play hockey. Hockey has made me the person that I am today. For example having to move away from your partents to play you really have to grow up. Your by yourself so you have to take care of yourself.
I would not have my life anyother way! Hockey is my life and i do eat, sleep, and breathe hockey.
Hey britt practice comment
ReplyDeleteHey britt, there had to be a lot of stress at a very young age playing hockey. i think it's neat that there are women hockey player. they need a womans red wings team, that would be awsome. I can't even ice skate. Your awsome. Dollie
ReplyDeleteI have a good friend whose sons play hockey. They're young (7 and 9)and they're not on a travel team, but they still spend a huge amount of time playing hockey.
ReplyDeleteI (selfishly) wonder about the parent side of things. I'm not sure I'd be up for that kind of dedication to my child's sport. My kids play sports pretty much every season, but they don't require huge commitments. There's no travel with anything they do but I still kind of resent the time they are required to spend with sports.
So I'm not sure I could do what your parents did, Brittany. Maybe if I knew my kid LOVED something I could do it; luckily my kids don't really love anything yet. :-) (What a lame and selfish thought!)
-Kristen