Hockey Mom Mania

I stepped into the arena in my freshly washed team jersey.  Adrenaline was pumping through me.  My palms were sweaty and I could hardly wait for the puck to drop. I wasn’t at an NHL game or an Olympic final.  No, I was at my eight year old’s championship hockey game. 

There we were, shoulder to shoulder, a sea of white - our noisemakers in hand. We were cheering (screaming) and chanting and hugging each other.  And we were a part of the game as if our lives depended on it.  We are hockey moms and I can’t believe I’m saying that out loud.  It wasn’t just us moms cheering. There were grandparents and siblings, friends and relatives and of course, the dads.  But it is the hockey moms who have a notorious reputation among the masses.   The term ‘hockey mom’ conjures images of women screaming at the refs and fighting with the opposing team’s moms – maybe even amongst themselves.

The fathers have somehow managed to escape this crazed image being attached to them.   For some reason it is acceptable for men to yell at people in public.  Women are thought to be held to higher standards of composure I suppose so public unravelling is somewhat frowned upon.

There really are only a handful of over-the-top hockey moms out there. The rest of us, as I have seen in my first year of travel hockey (I know, I’m still a newbie), are harmless and only want the best for our kids and our teams.  Now, I will admit that if I were to see myself on some sort of secret footage during one of my son’s play- off games I may be slightly (totally) embarrassed. I would probably look somewhat hysterical and there would be pasta and pennies flying out of my homemade noisemaker. 

And if my son had been wearing a wire-tap before the big game, there would be evidence of me bribing him that if he were to score and their team won I would buy him a new video game.  And I have been known to bribe with lesser things like cokes and chocolate bars.  I am very tempted to delete this last paragraph as you may be starting to question my stability.  And it does kind of sound bad.  But for an eight year old - my eight year old - some junk food or a new video game are more tangible than a win. I’m speaking his language.  Ok, now it sounds like it’s all about winning but if you know me, it is!

   

Maybe I am not the best example of the hockey mom that I want to tell you about.  The hockey moms (and dads and grandparents) I have come to know are supportive of their kids and of each other.  We cheer for everyone and we don’t yell at the referees.  We love the sport of it all and we love our kids. I have a new perspective on being a hockey mom. I have a new perspective of being any parent who has a child competing in any sport or any art.

We shouldn’t feel embarrassed about being emotionally invested in our kid’s competitions.  It doesn’t mean we think they are going to be the next big star. It doesn’t mean we are trying to live vicariously through them.  It means we are human and we like to feel something.  Aren’t feelings and emotions all we really have? Competition brings it all out – pride, agony, anticipation, joy and disappointment. It’s all so natural really.

I am a hockey mom. Hear me roar (with the occasional primal scream).