Mom, When Are We Going to Disney World?

With March Break recently over here in PEI, I am seeing many pictures on Facebook of all the big tournament wins and Provincial Championships that have happened over the past couple of weeks. I smile and like every one of them because they remind me of pretty much every single March Break or family vacation we took for about 15 years! When you sign your kid up to play hockey, you basically spend the rest of your life saying, "I'm not sure, I'll have to check our hockey schedule," before you commit to anything. Whether it's family dinners, celebrations, sleepovers, going out with friends, or even family vacations.

I remember one year, about 10 years ago my brother decided to have a destination wedding in the Dominican Republic. This was very exciting for us for many reasons: we would get to spend time with many family members, I would be getting a new sister, but mostly it would be the first time the 4 of us ever went someplace warm for a family vacation in the winter! However, this trip didn't happen without some rearranging. You see Zack had a big tournament scheduled for the week end that we were supposed to leave. Most families would probably just say, it's one tournament...no big deal to miss it for such an important family event, right? Well this happened to be a Spring Hockey tournament and in Zack's mind there was just no way he could ever miss it! So we talked about it and decided that we could make it all happen if Zack and Craig left 2 days later than us, which also meant they got to stay 2 days after we left! Seemed easy right? Well not quite. For some reason, when they got to the airport, the signed letter that I provided to give permission to my husband to travel to a foreign country with our child wasn't enough. So after many conversations, lots of panic and $400 Craig was able to get what he needed and they made their flight. That was an amazing trip!

On another occasion, it was leading up to March Break and we were having dinner one evening. At this time both boys were playing hockey and both on rep teams. Any hockey parent knows that with the cost and time commitment of playing hockey, there just isn't much disposable income left over. However, the boys were talking about all the trips their friends were taking for March Break and one of them asked, "Mom when are we going to Disney World?" I was a little disappointed after they asked because I knew it was something that we could never afford to do at the time. Then I thought about it for a second and said, "We can go to Disney World when both of you decide not to play hockey for a year." Well that was the best answer I could have ever given, because they never asked to go to Disney World again! And by the way, we haven't been there yet! It was at that moment that we were able to have a very important conversation with our boys about budgets, setting priorities and figuring out what's important and what's not.

Things have certainly not become any cheaper when it comes to putting your kids in hockey. So it's very important to know what you are getting into before you sign up. I'm not saying it's a bad thing because for our family it was the best thing we did for our boys and our family as a whole. However, it doesn't hurt to make your kids realize that they can't do or have everything. Money does not grow on trees and playing sports is expensive.

It was also very important to us to show the boys, that if you made a commitment to a team, you needed to be there for them no matter what. Especially if that team is a rep team. Missing hockey or baseball because we were going on a vacation or going camping, was never an option. Because, to me this is not teaching your kid about responsibility and accountability. There are many other kids who would love to have that spot on that rep team. So our vacations were always hockey trips or baseball trips. Boy I wish I had kept a journal of the places we got to see thanks to hockey! Maybe that will be a memory for another day, however the picture at the top is one from one of Zack's hockey trips, with us taking a little time to go maple syrup tapping!

I'll wrap this one up by saying that, my advice to parents thinking about putting your kid in hockey or any sport, is to make sure that you commit to getting them to every game and practice and try your best not to be late. Yes, we are the taxi drivers and sometimes life happens and we can't get there. But I know that anytime we even threatened being late it was very upsetting to our boys. Especially as they got older and their coaches had rules for them to follow about showing up on time. Also, be sure you really think twice before you allow your kid to miss a practice or a game here and there because "it's no big deal". It's not just about the time missed, it's also about the life lessons around being responsible and keeping a promise you made to your coach and teammates that really matter.