Youth sports are not supposed to be FUN, dammit!

Today, I was all set to blog about Gracie Lou's first week as a member of our family but I just keep thinking about something that occurred at Thing 2's hockey game on Tuesday and I'm still chuckling about it so that's what I decided to blog about today instead of a recap of Week One with Gracie Lou who probably should have been named "Velcro" because she is pretty much attached to my lower leg.

Anyway.  Tuesday night was, as usual, Hockey Night for Thing 2.  A couple of seasons ago, there was a Change in Management and since then, things have been, how shall I put this, unfair and unbalanced as far as how teams are decided.  Each season, there is one team that is totally "stacked," rules aren't enforced and there's always at least one player, sometimes more, who thinks their last name is "Hanson" and they play for the Charlestown Chiefs.

But Thing 2 loves her hockey and she's just out there to have fun. She doesn't take it too serious and as long as she's happy, I'm fine sitting in my chair at the end of the rink cheering her on and watching the drama unfold.  And lately, there's A LOT of drama.

This weeks game was against one of the "stacked" teams and it was clear from the first few minutes of the game that it was going to be completely lopsided.  Again.  Thing 2's coach knew from the outset it was going to be ugly and told his players to just go out there, do their best and have fun.

So I'm sitting there and one of the other moms comes and stands next to me, watching the carnage.  This particular mom is very neurotic high-strung and takes the game VERY serious. She was going on about how lousy the new management is, how things have gone downhill, how she doesn't know if "they'll" be back next season blah blah blah.  While she was going on, Thing 2 skated by with a big smile on her face and I said something like, "yeah, it's been pretty bad but Thing 2 says she's having fun and that's what's important here."  And let me interject here to say that this is an Inline Youth Recreation League.  It's not Club or Travel or Jr. Olympics or the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.  It's for Fun.  Well, it's supposed to be.


So I make my "having fun" comment and Hockey Mom looks at me and sputters, "I am not paying $150 a season for my son to have FUN."  I blinked at her a couple of times and said, "Allrighty then" and went back to watching our team lose 0-8.  After the game, I asked Thing 2 if she was still having fun and she told me that even though things are pretty dismal, if she wasn't having fun, she wouldn't be out there.


I dunno, Hockey Mom's comment just struck me as funny even though I guarantee that was NOT her intent because hockey and youth sports aren't supposed to be fun, dammit!