George McGurn
May 16, 2001
My wife, Gina, and I were doing some baby-sitting for my oldest
son’s kids. We finally had a nice warm day and the boys wanted to play some hockey. Matt is now five years old and has been
playing a lot of hockey for the past few years. He has some talent and loves to compete. Matt and I have had so much fun in the
driveway playing hockey one-on-one.
Matt has gotten so good at the game that I make him move far away from
me in the net when he fires his slaps hot.
He can really hit the puck now.
Danny is now three years old and he is just beginning to show
some interest in hockey. But today he
was ready to go. In fact, he had some
new hockey equipment he wanted to try out for the first time. He showed me his new helmet and some brand
new roller blades. He put on his equipment
and he was ready to go. Matt picked the
teams. He wanted to take on Grampa and Danny. He was in the net first. And the game was on. Or was it?
Danny was having equipment problems. His new helmet was a little too big and kept falling down over
his eyes and he couldn’t see. When I adjusted
the strap he could see a little better but the helmet still kept falling
down. I couldn’t do any more adjusting
so I told Danny he would just have to live with it. Then he found out he couldn’t skate on his new roller
blades. In fact, he had trouble
standing with the new blades.
While Danny and I were making the equipment changes Matt was in
the net waiting to start the game. And
he was getting a little impatient. I got
Danny into a position in the driveway where he could both see and stand and the
game was on—but not really. I passed
the puck to Danny and he found that he couldn’t stand without using his stick
as a support. So when he lifted his
stick to hit the puck he would fall down.
Our team had to call another time-out while I gave Danny a
little practice at standing and hitting the puck at the same time. After
a bit Danny said he was ready so we began the game again. I passed the puck to Danny and now he could
lift his stick and stand up at the same time.
But then his helmet fell down over his eyes and he couldn’t see the puck.
Poor Danny was so frustrated but he was determined to
play. He couldn’t see his target so he
just flailed away in the general direction of the puck. He just kept on missing and kept on
swinging. And Matt was still in the
net and he was really getting impatient.
And I was trying to figure out a way to make this activity work for both
boys.
When Danny finally saw that he couldn’t hit the puck he was so
disappointed and so frustrated. I suggested
that he take off the helmet and the roller blades but we wouldn’t give in. Finally, he threw his stick down and sat in
the driveway sobbing.
By this time Matt was really irritated. Matt said he wasn’t waiting anymore so he packed up his gear and
headed off into the back yard.
Now Danny and I were alone and he agreed to take off the helmet
and roller blades and try the game on foot.
Danny and I were one-on-one so we
were able to adjust the game to his skill level. Danny and I just knocked the puck around for a while and Danny
regained his interest in the game.
Now that Danny could see and he could keep his balance he could
really hit the puck. Danny was having fun and he was really enjoying
the hockey. He and I had a great game
going for a short while.
Then his two-year-old sister, Sarah, wandered out of the back
yard to see what we were doing. Sarah
and Gina had been busy in the back yard but now Sarah wanted to ride her car on
the driveway in the middle of the hockey game. Gina was trying to keep Sarah away from the flying hockey sticks
but Sarah was determined to hold her ground and stay on the driveway.
Gina and I were warning Danny about hitting Sarah with the
stick but he didn’t seem to take much notice because he was really into the
hockey game. So before someone got hurt,
we had to call off the hockey. And
Danny didn’t like our call and he let us know it. The hockey game just didn’t work for any of the three kids.
Now that the hockey game was over I began to remember how easy
it was for Matt and me to play together.
There were no other kids around and no distractions. It’s so much easier to play a game when you
are one-on -one with your child. You
can adapt the game to the interest level and the skill level of the child and
make sure he finds success and enjoys the game.
But when you have three kids with three levels of interest and
ability it’s really a challenge. I need to re-think my activities for the
three grandchildren and make sure I find some individual one- on -one time for
each one.