10 easy steps

1: Casually look up when hockey starts and what day of the week it is. Easy peasy.

2: Gasp in horror when you see that it’s TWICE a week and then faint from shock when you learn it’s Saturday AND Sunday morning at 7:40 AM. For a 4yo.

3: When you come to, your husband is waiting to go over all the equipment and he’s saying the terms in French so you really start to spiral until you start to write it all down. “What’s the jambieres again? The shin/knee things?” This helps a little until you realize there are 12 items of equipment, plus a bag, you need to track down.

4: Have a little laugh when your husband says “jock strap” for your 4yo and ask, “Do they make them that small?” They do.

5: Have a moment of panic when you ask what the cou/neck guard is for and ask, “Is that to keep his neck warm?” as if he’s curling up with a cup of tea and a good book and then your husband explains, “No, it’s so his neck doesn’t get slashed by a skate.”

6: Between hand-me-downs, Canadian Tire, and five sellers on FB Marketplace, you locate all 12 items of equipment and feel like, at this point, you could probably track down the Holy Grail.

7: Try everything on your 4yo and see his excitement, as he instinctually hits his helmeted head with his hockey-gloved hands. See the happiness flood your husband’s eyes as he says, “Maybe he will really love it.” And when he starts to dream and asks, “Have you ever seen the home movies of Wayne Gretzky playing hockey on a lake near his house when he was 3yo?” you must try to keep a neutral face and simply reply with, “No, can’t say I came across those. Maybe you can show me?”

8: Go to the first practice and observe as your husband puts all the equipment on your 4yo, writing down the order, which should be logical but all you see are 12 pieces of equipment coming out of a bag and it’s. just. a. lot.

9: Watch the first practice, which goes well until he starts to get tired and then he has an itch on his face he can’t reach because of the helmet grill and FREAKS OUT and you’re trying to poke your fingers in the grill to find the itch but he’s moving and FREAKING OUT so much until you find the itch and scratch it! And hockey can resume.

10: The next week it’s your turn to take him to practice (panic in the locker room when you CAN’T FIND YOUR NOTES, HOW WILL YOU DRESS HIM??? oh there they are whew), which also means being the parent on the ice. At this age every kid has a parent on the ice, and you wonder how it came to be that you are skating around with a hockey stick in your hands doing hockey drills.

Good luck! Go get ‘em! Yay hockey!

Equipment order:

– [x] t-shirt/socks

– [x] 1 jock strap – bought FB (note: they have little velcro things you use to attach the hockey socks and hold them up)

– [x] 2 jambieres (shin+knee) – bought FB

– [x] 3 hockey socks – THEY SUPPLY

– [x] 4 culottes (pants) – bought FB

– [x] 5 skates – already own

– [x] 6 plastron (chest+shoulders) – hand-me-down

– [x] 7 coudes (elbow) – bought CT

– [x] 8 cou (neck guard) – bought CT

– [x] 9 hockey jersey – THEY SUPPLY

– [x] 10 casque (helmet) – bought FB

– [x] 11 gants (gloves) – found FB

– [x] 12 hockey stick – hand-me-down

– [x] hockey bag – search house for big bag because I am not buying anything else