Hockey...the tip of the iceberg

There is no way I could write one blog about how much my three children's love of hockey impacts my life. So consider this just the tip of the proverbial iceberg- or rink, in this case.

As cliche as the phrase has become in the wake of Sarah Palin, I am still proud to be a hockey mom. There is a reason my husband always says "hockey moms are the hottest." They wake up early, go to bed late, scream loud, drive fast, love big and always acknowledge when the opposing goalie makes a nice save. They endure freezing cold rinks and stinky bags and though some (like me) complain, they love their babies and their babies love HOCKEY.

I thought a lot about being a hockey mom at a recent tournament in upstate NY.

If a youth hockey team is a family, then the out of town tournament is like a holiday, when you are all together whether you like it or not. Players, parents, siblings and coaches all cozied up in a Holiday Inn complete with an indoor pool and, with any luck, some space for the kids to play knee hockey and the adults to drink heavily. Often, there are other teams staying at the same hotel. This always seems to turn the hotel into a state of gang warfare. Nerf guns, water balloons, the aforementioned knee hockey sticks...everything is a weapon. Even the meekest child is suddenly a thug when surrounded by his teammates (and their brothers) and hidden in the confines of an out of town hotel hallway.

As moms we try to be a little more civil...usually. We will smile at the other teams, ask how their games went, maybe even offer a mom one of our gourmet jello shots. We'll placate the hotel staff with empty promises about the children not running. We jump in the pool in our jeans to save our drowning 3 yr olds (ok fine, that was just me and thankfully he can swim now), but I did witness a mom effortlessly splint her son's finger after a gang related incident in the hotel hallways and send him on his way without missing a turn at our beloved game- Left Right Center.

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Generally all is fair in love and hotel hallway wars. But no matter who we are in real life; doctors, lawyers, former debutantes...at the tournament, we are hockey moms. And if you mess with our kids, we don't care if you're other parents, coaches, refs, hotel staff, local police...we will go Jersey Shore on your ass.