Hockey Mom

I am not talking about the 'normal' hockey mom here.  The one that carts kids to and fro, early mornings, late nights, freezing rain, snow up to your ears hockey mom.  That job is hard enough... I am talking about a real hockey playing mom. 

I am not sure if what I have been doing is considered 'playing' hockey, but I have been putting on the gear (my 10 year old son's gear, but it fits, sad right?) and going out there every Sunday for the past month or so.  And. Let. Me. Tell. You.  Itishard!!! I seriously didn't even know what hand I was.  I assumed right, since I am a righty for everything else.  Nope I was quickly told I am a lefty.  So the following week I used a lefty stick.  I have now been told I switch hands.  Since carrying an extra stick on my back isn't possible, I have to force myself to be one or the other.  I have bought a lefty stick, therefore, I am a lefty. 

I use to be a raving lunatic in the stands, telling my kids and their teammates where they should be and how they should shoot.  I am not going to say I won't yell ever again, but I do now know how hard it is to get there and do this or do that.  Of course they have had years of practice over me, but man, just to catch a pass is hard.  Hell, even knowing which way to look for the puck provides for entertainment.  I spin sometimes, not really on purpose, but I do. 

Just to skate up and down the ice is tiring.  Then to try and keep a puck on your stick, with your head up, and prepare to shoot.  Well, sometimes not all three things happen at once.  Sometimes they do.  That is what I call a miracle.  Luckily, we are just a bunch of women with a few men sprinkled in that are out there for fun and exercise.  We have a high school student as a coach.  He is a great hockey player and must look at us and laugh.  Occassionally there is a 'superstar' that shows up.  She shoots the puck hard and can skate circles around all of us.  One day I will catch up to her and trip her. 

Generally, we have a good time, leave the ice with smiles, and go home and soak in a hot tub to soothe the surely exhausted muscles.  I sleep great on Sunday nights.  It is not always because I have spent 5 hours in the car taking the kids to their games.  It isn't always because we got up at the crack of dawn to get to their games and support them.  Sometimes, it is about me.  And the fact that I am far too old to be skating up and down that dreaded ice week after week.  But yet I go back!

So I will no longer be one of those hockey moms.  Yelling and screaming for Johnny to skate to the point (side note, I don't know what a point is or where it is, if we are on home ice, it may be the hole that I fell into at practice last night...our ice needs serious repair) or go low...(BTW last night a superstar boy showed up...he told me if he got the puck for me to go low slot.  I laughed ... two problems where is low slot and getting there).  Just shooting the puck provides an exercise in skill and precision.  And then some people can lift the puck.  That means it goes in the air.  Yeah...If a goal is scored, anyway, I know how hard those 5 skaters out there had to work to get it and how hard the other 6 tried to stop it. 

I think instead of parent education on how to behave in the stands, every parent should be forced to put on the gear and try to play for an hour.  Appreciate how hard they work and how hard it is.  And then enjoy the fact that your kid can do it to whatever level and be proud of them for it.