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Parents' penalty: 12 hours for rushing

Broadcast Date: Dec. 18, 1994

For the Davies family of Aurora, Ont., a typical Sunday morning is like the start of a military operation. On a table sits a black monthly planner. Inside are three colour-coded schedules — one for each boy — listing games and locations. Today, two of the boys also have referee duties in separate arenas. In this CBC Radio clip, a reporter rides shotgun with Joe and Lindsay Davies through an exhausting day of hockey that spans almost 12 hours and many kilometres.

What makes it all worthwhile, Lindsay says, is the bonds her sons are forming with teammates that "can lead to fantastic friendships."

Parents' penalty: 12 hours for rushing

• In November 2004, Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada told the Toronto Star newspaper: "Parents give up vacations, ruin their cars with travel and deprive themselves of many things for their kids' hockey. These are the best parents in the world. We separate the wheat from the chaff in the hockey world because if you are not serious about the game, you'll not put up with the expense, the effort or the time."

• In The Home Team: Hockey and Life in Canada, Ken Dryden and Roy MacGregor profiled Ed and Cathy Koehler. As parents of boys including an elite Triple-A player, they were expected to be at the rink four nights a week. Ed got so used to the ritual that, after his sons' teams got knocked out of the playoffs, he'd drive around "checking Toronto arenas for a game in progress."

• As well as books, hockey parents have inspired parody. In 1979 comedian Rick Moranis, who would later go on to fame in SCTV and Hollywood films, played a hockey dad in a skit on Don Harron's Morningside on CBC Radio. In the skit, he tells his daughter he saved "every stitch you ever took" and groans that his son won no hockey trophies — only a Governor General's Literary Award.

• Not everyone thinks the hectic hockey-family lifestyle is healthy. In 1999, parents formed a group called Family Life First in suburban Minneapolis. The group urges parents and coaches to cut back on activities including hockey to give families more time together at home. "Bragging rights are no longer how big your house or car is, but how busy your family is," Bill Doherty, a University of Minnesota social science professor, said in 2000.

• Many corporations are eager to be associated with grassroots hockey and its reputation as a wholesome family pastime. They include:
- Campbell's Soup, which has run competitions to identify Canada's "most valuable hockey moms."
- RBC Insurance, which has co-sponsored a program to recognize behind-the-scenes volunteers in minor hockey.
- Panasonic, which sponsored a "hometown hockey" exhibit at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Parents' penalty: 12 hours for rushing

Medium: Radio

Program: The Inside Track

Broadcast Date: Dec. 18, 1994

Guest(s): Joe Davies, Lindsay Davies

Reporter: Greg Kelly

Duration: 10:57

Last updated:
Nov. 14, 2006