braden started his next skating class last week. he’s having tons of fun and even though it’s the same class it seems he’s still the youngest! when he passed his first class the instructor said he was ready for the next level, which was for 4-7yr olds. being that he just turned 3, my sister decided to just re-enroll him in the same class since he probably wasn’t ready to skate on his own. this way he can build more confidence and have fun! he has a different instructor this time and she was even impressed that he was so young and was doing so well!
i have to say though, now i know why some hockey parents get a bad rap!! i was extremely annoyed last session because there was a dad that had his son enrolled and i had a hard time watching him!! he was probably the most unsupportive parent, and his kid was by far the best skater on the ice! he was pretty young and skated entirely on his own for the entire month that class was in session. his father would stand pretty much on the opposite end of the ice with his arms folded and would keep throwing stuffed animals onto the ice for his son to skate to. if his son fell, he’d stand there, let out a HUGE sigh, and shake his head in disgust!! whereas all the other parents would be out on the ice, skating with their kids, even falling a few times on their bottoms with their kids! they’d all have smiles on their faces and you could genuinely see how much fun both the parents and kids were having!!! NOPE. not that kid!!! and if the dad wasn’t bad enough, i dreaded seeing the mom in the stands and after one incident where she came and sat close to me, i made sure to stay far away from her during any other class!!! let’s just leave it at that!
this session his class seems a little fuller. the parents are a lot more hands-on with the kids which i think is great!! for the first class there were two kids that showed up in full gear- we’re talking, knee pads, shoulder pads, full cages on their helmets! one of the boys was having an absolute blast! he was in his Capitals jersey and his dad was skating around with him, even pretending to body check him every now and then! the kid would make it a point to fall and glide across the ice like he was trying to save a goal! the other kid, that was another story! both the parents came and just getting the kid onto the ice was an ordeal!!! we’re talking full hysterics, screaming and crying, and if he could he probably would have laid down on the ice kicking and screaming!! the dad of course pressed on and even the instructors couldn’t help! the boy would skate and if he fell that was the end of it!! it took another five minutes to just get him to stand back up, and of course he refused to wear gloves so every time he touched the ice you would’ve thought someone was strangling him!!! after seeing these two children, seriously, what a difference it makes when you’ve got a parent who’s forcing the sport on their kid, and one who is having fun with their kid!
these skating lessons have definitely been teaching me a lot for when i have kids who are involved in sports!! ok, i’m sure i’ll probably have a little bit of crazy hockey mom in me, but if my kids don’t want play, i certainly wouldn’t be forcing them!! i love watching braden out on the ice. he stands there and stomps around on the ice and is just so anxious to start skating! he’s definitely getting the hang of it because he actually wants to stay out on the ice longer, his first session we were lucky if he made it halfway through!
RSS Feed
