Hockey Playing Siblings

[Deep Breath]

I have noticed a lot this winter that parents will "follow" one child to their tournament and make another child miss their stuff, whether it be practices or games. Was curious for those families out there with multiple kids playing hockey: what is the rationale for making 1 kid miss his/her stuff so the whole family follows the other sibling to his/her event? Was wondering why parents wouldn't split duties so each player could do his/her own thing? I have 2 kids playing hockey and I would love to see both of them every time they are on the ice, but I am realistic to know that it just can't happen every time, not with hockey schedules. Getting text updates about a game/tournament I am missing isn't all bad.

[JSR]

I have noticed a lot this winter that parents will "follow" one child to their tournament and make another child miss their stuff, whether it be practices or games. Was curious for those families out there with multiple kids playing hockey: what is the rationale for making 1 kid miss his/her stuff so the whole family follows the other sibling to his/her event? Was wondering why parents wouldn't split duties so each player could do his/her own thing? I have 2 kids playing hockey and I would love to see both of them every time they are on the ice, but I am realistic to know that it just can't happen every time, not with hockey schedules. Getting text updates about a game/tournament I am missing isn't all bad.

I've often wondered that same thing. Along the same lines I also have noticed in many families that even when the parents do split the duties that it seems like one parent follows one kid and the other parents follows the other and they rarely if ever go and watch the other child. It's as if they've decided "Joe" is dad's kid and "Johnny" is mom's kid.

I have three kids, two boys who play hockey and one girl who swims. Sadly with three kids and two parents sometimes one of our kids has neither parent at an event which makes me very sad but we do our best to be equitable to all the kids and because there are WAY fewer swim meets than hockey games we do our very best to try and make all the swim meets because the boys just have alot more hockey games so alot more chances to watch them at both. I also help as an assistant coach for both of the boys hockey teams which also helps me see both of them and spend time with them as well. Unfortunately, swimming being what it is it doesn't allow for that same type fo interaction with the duaghter in the winter so I try and make it up to her in the soccer season in spring and fall (which both boys also play)...... It's not easy though that is for sure, and admittedly every once in a great while one of the kids will miss a practice or something so we can all just be a family together. But again we try and rotate that and make sure one kid isn't being singled out but family time is important too and is hard to come by when you have three active kids going three different directions and atleast one of them having something literally every single night (they all have nights/days off but unfortunately they aren;t all the same day so mom and dad never really have a day off... did I mention I am tired today )

[spin-o-rama]

Out of town tourneys are pricey. One family described it that if they are going to spend vacation type money, they will take the whole family. It's hard to argue with that. Families do need time together. Other families send the other kids off to stay with grandma or a friend and have a parent/son weekend. Not a bad thing either.

It can be hard when the excuse doesn't make sense to common priorities. We had 1 parent bow out of their kid attending a tweener (not local, but not far enough away for a hotel) tourney game that started at 8am because a sibling needed to sleep in and couldn't be left at home alone and the parent didn't feel comfortable having their player travel with someone else for such a long distance (40-50 miles). Not what I would have done, but not disastrous either. The other kids got a bit more playing time.

Advance notice and communication is key if practices and games will be missed.

[old goalie85]

We have five playing, so I go to the team that wins the most. Actually we don't end up going to out of town tournys together very often. I try to watch the oldest on down [because hockey days get shrter the older they get] But we don't make anyone miss for another kids game. I take that back. From squirt on up. I have made the might miss one or two this year. Not right , but just the way it worked out. I know a family in WBL they have 4 oldest is at hill, the rest squirt on up and they seem to do the same thing.

[old goalie85]

I meant the kids don't miss Games or practice. And the might did not miss any games.

[surehockey]

I think what OG85 is trying to say is that the mite might miss a practice because the older kids have games. There has been a practice missed because you can only be in 2 places at once.
We are very grateful that we have a wonderful hockey "Family" to help out when there are are weekends when 3 kids are playing in tournaments and the other 2 have games and practices. Been several like that this year.

[C-dad]

Our team's coach has three boys playing hockey and a daughter in gymnastics. The daughter made the high school team so her travel is handled by just getting her to the high school. The coach requested that his oldest son be held to a lower level team so that his younger son could play with him. I heard they do this every other year. From there they split up as best they can cover as many events as they can. At our travel tourney, only the dad made it as the younger son had games and the daughter had a meet so mom went to those. I can't imagine the gyrations they have to go through for all these sports. I am in awe.

[BodyShots]

We had three playing sports during the winter months, with two in hockey, and one in basketball. Lets just say most out of town tourney's had one parent, with the other parent staying in town with the other two children. Some parents like to party a little bit more than others, and mom wasn't a night owl, so dad ended up getting "stuck" with those tourney's. Can you say...TOGA.

[Cdale]

Prioritize! Pick your favorite kid and go from there. Kidding. As a multiple kid & hockey family- divide and conquer. Enlist rides, do what it takes. Bantams rules over Peewees, Peewees rules over Squirts etc....

[DMom]

I have to agree, oldest gets first priority, and that's hard for parents with their oldest child in squirts to understand, but the high school age kids only have so many games left and you want to see as many as you can. We try to mix up our volunteering so that we are primarily with one kid or the other in different years. This year it has been my pleasure to finally get to know the youngest's friends and their families, while the middle one is with his Dad primarily. We were opposite ends of the state this weekend but had great support from hockey 'family' also who kept a watch over the oldest and he was lucky enough to have Auntie and both grandpas at the game in case there was a medical emergency.