It is quarter past five in the morning. It is dark. It is well below freezing. And there is a queue of cars outside an ice rink with their engines running.
Nobody made these people do this. That is the extraordinary part.
The Commitment Is Genuinely Absurd
Let us lay it out plainly, because people who are not hockey parents do not believe it.
- Practices before dawn. Multiple times a week. For years.
- Weekend tournaments in towns you would otherwise never visit.
- Equipment that outgrows the child roughly every eight months.
- A car that permanently smells of a bag you are no longer allowed to bring in the house.
And they will tell you, completely sincerely, that they love it. Because they do.
Why They Actually Love It
It is not really about the hockey, and every hockey parent knows this even if they would not say it out loud.
It is the car journeys. Forty minutes each way with a kid who talks to you properly because there is nothing else to do. Teenagers who tell their parents nothing will tell them everything at six in the morning on the way to a rink.
That is what they are buying with all those early starts. The hockey is the excuse.
The Car Is The Second Home
Anyone in this life knows the vehicle becomes part of the operation. It is a changing room, a dining room, a place where somebody sleeps on the way back from a tournament.
Which is why a Hockey Player's Spare Tire Cover is funnier and more accurate than it first appears. That car has earned its badge. It has done more rink miles than most of the players have skated.
The Rink Cold Is Its Own Thing
Practical advice for anybody new to this. Rink cold gets into your bones in a way outdoor cold does not, because you are sitting still in it for two hours.
Layers, a hot drink you brought yourself because the machine is unreliable, and something to sit on. The concrete steps will take the warmth straight out of you.
To Everybody In That Car Park
Nobody is going to thank you. There is no medal for the parent, and the kid will not understand what those years cost you until they are considerably older.
But they will understand eventually. They always do, usually around the time they are sitting in a car park at five in the morning for somebody else.
Drive safe. Bring the good flask.
Written by Allergic to Boring Dayz. Thanks for reading.