Here's what I know as a parent and here's what I teach my kids: You win some and you lose some. Celebrate with dignity, lose with dignity. Play fair, do your best and enjoy every game. Make friends.
Apparently not everyone sees things the same. And so what? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and encouraged to raise their kids as they see fit.
We are not in hockey to lose friends. We are in hockey to make friends. We enjoy our kids and support their passion. To say we are a hockey family is an understatement. We see more ice times than movies every week. We have a backyard rink and enough jerseys on hand to outfit a tournament. That's just us. We don't coach, but we support all who do. It's a huge commitment and a great thing to share skills that way.
But we also have a little league storm cloud brewing over a recent tournament game. Seems everyone with a chat moniker wants to chime in. Apparently my kid saw more ice time than he "should" have in a game. Ok??!! What I saw was an exciting game, where a great crowd of parents and grandparents gathered. We cheered every goal... for us AND the opposition. Every kid walked away with a medal and smile.
I asked my player how the tournament was. He told me awesome, "we all danced (like this & he demonstrated) to Gagnam Style in the locker room. It was so funny."
The next thing he asked was "when do we play next?" I told him about the tournament in the small town upcoming next weekend. He replied... "is that the rink with the good hamburger soup?"
All in all, my son's answers were all I needed to know. He was oblivious to the adult angst. He had fun with his friends. There's more to hockey (or any sport) than the competition. Sometimes there's good hamburger soup and a dance party.
Incidentally, we lost that game. My son was not player of the game, did not receive a giant trophy and was not secretly awarded a $2million dollar contract with Nike... just incase you worried that was at stake. LOL
It's little league. Relax. Enjoy some soup.
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