Why I Am Not a Fan of Weekday Practices

Hockey season has started. The boys, for the most part, are thrilled. Middle Man broke his arm at his last hockey class about a month ago. He was doing a superman fall and glide across the ice because the coach told them too even though Middle Man did not want to do it. So he is tentative about this whole hockey thing now that his cast is off. But even he is out there on the ice two times a week. With three boys in two different age groups, we have 5 hockey practices a week. The weekend practices are fine because my husband and I can tag team. Hockey Boy though has two evening practices during the week that I get to do all by myself with all three boys. I love supporting my kids doing what they love to do, but I HATE (yes I know we are not supposed to say HATE) but I really dislike midweek practices.

I always have high hopes of getting some reading done while the other boys share the iPod Touch nicely, taking turns playing Angry Birds. Turns out sharing the game involves a lot of whining, "He's not letting me watch him play" and asking me every two minutes, "how much longer until it's my turn?" Add someone else's dog on a leash to the mix and Little One is screaming and climbing up my legs so fast and demanding to be held because he is terrified of dogs. He is almost 4 years old and heavy so now my back is aching and the kids are whining and I am agitated. And then embarrassed because I am pretty sure I have yelled at at least one of the kids if not the whole crew. The only thing more frustrating than badly behaved kids in public is me behaving badly to my kids in public.

So all that to say that I am not a fan of hockey practice. Let me amend that because I do love to watch each of my boys skating and playing on the ice: I am not a fan of taking the other kids to hockey practice.

After last nights crying and whining with a video game to entertain them, I decided that we would be going old school tonight. They already know that we will be taking coloring books, wiki sticks and maybe a board game to play tonight. More labor intensive for me because I will probably actually have to talk to my kids while we are sitting at the rink. I might have to actually play a game with them or read them a book. I might have to use that hour Hockey Boy is on the ice to spend quality time with my other two boys.

I'll let you know if this plan goes any better... or if I buy a second iPod Touch before next Monday's practice. I knew we should have bought stock in Apple.