If one more person asks
me how much I pay my son for a goal I think I might just scream.
Pay him for a goal, are
your freaking serious? Have you seen the price of hockey
registration? Heck, have you seen the price of gas? I've paid enough
already for this boy to play hockey! Beyond the debit card ca'ching
that goes on to get him into and to the games I have also paid with
my Sunday morning sleep deprivation. I am not about to start shelling
out five bucks a goal.
Frankly I am amazed
that anyone would subscribe to the practice of paying their kids to
play in the first place and I am offended quite openly by the number
of parents who automaticly assume that my son is good on the ice
because I pay him to be. Anybody who thinks that would work, please... raise
your hand. Now put your hand down and leave the room.
My son does play very
well. We have done one year of hockey fundamentals where he learned
to skate and hold a stick and stop without smashing into the boards.
We spent a season in ball hockey where his most spectacular goal was
a slow motion roll in from the far end of the rink that should very
well have been called for icing. This is his first year of ice hockey
and he has excelled. Yes, he leads the league in assists. Yes, he has
more than a hat trick of hat tricks. Yes, he sits in the top three
goal scorers. Yes, he loves the game.
He eats, sleeps and
breaths hockey. There are games on tv, games in the street, mini
stick games in the basement. I have to pull him in off the street for
dinner and glue him to the chair to keep him there long enough to
eat. He is the first one in the van on game day and he wakes us
up for practice on Sunday mornings. On the way to the arena I can
hear him in the backseat singing along to the “hockey play-list”
he has created on his Ipod. He warms up at home before his games, he
makes himself a protein breakfast and requests pasta lunches.
Yes, he loves the game,
he has fun out there on the ice that is what makes him a good player.
If the day ever arrived
that I felt compelled to pay him for his performance that would be
the very last day he plays hockey.
The question “how
much do you pay him for a goal” makes me furious and I wonder
how many kids are out there on the ice because they want to be and
how many are out their because their parents want them to be the next
big star?
Hey, I have an idea if
you really want your kids to be stars and you think money will do
that why not stop paying them for goals and start paying them for
sportsmanship. How about a buck for every fist-bump or pass to a
player who doesn't get many shots. Maybe a purple slurpee for
knocking the goalie on the shoulder after a rough game and praising
all out effort. How about five bucks for yelling a “thanks coach”
on the way out of the dressing room.
Maybe, if you did
that, in 20 years the stands will be filled with awesome hockey
parents.
Gratitude to the
parents who have not asked how much we pay our kid to play, the ones
who stop him and say great game and who recognize that he's just
having a good time. Gratitude as well to my friend who suggested that
she pays her son to be the first one out of the dressing room after a
game – now there is an idea I would contribute a buck to!
Hope, Gratitude and Smiles are meant to be shared
Michelle
