What can I say? I don’t really know how I ended up as the Mom of three youth hockey goalies – yes three!. I can only surmise that I must have done something really wicked in a past life.
I have my suspicions however that the landslide towards “Goalie Mom” started when my oldest son got a look at all the equipment he’d need. Since his entry into youth sports at five, he has always seemed more excited about the snacks and outfits than about the actual game itself….and so when he first saw those pads and the fancy helmet: I have to believe that was the beginning of the end.
We didn’t encourage the others boys to follow suit, tho’ I can’t pretend that the idea of amortizing the cost (aka handing down) of the equipment over all three kids did have some appeal. But man, the home locker room full of smelly gear is only one part of the story. Someone should have told me about recovering from a weekend of six, eight or sometimes as many as ten games. Don’t tell anyone, but it can take me days to recover. I won’t even bring up those weekends when the game comes down to a shoot-out – then we’re talking a full week’s therapy.