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 In our hockey house, all the responsibilities for the minor hockey season are divided into two categories: the mom jobs and the dad jobs. Yes, this categorization is extremely sexist but if you’ve ever seen me tape a hockey stick, you’ll know why.

My daughter’s 2016-17 Midget team is now set – the first practice and league game of the season already on the calendar. My calendar, anyway. This exercise made me realize there are many hockey season activities that seem to fall in the mom job category. In our household they include:

• Showing my husband how to subscribe to the team schedule and import to his calendar. “OK, first you click here, then here and you’re done.” Every. Single. Season.
• Sewing on the name bars on the game jerseys. I’m a terrible seamstress. I’ve sewed so many name bars to the front of the jersey while intending to only sew them to the back of the jersey, yet somehow – some ninety jerseys later - this is still a mom job.
• Being Chief of the Potluck Police. The team icebreaker is coming up and the dad job is to make sure a six-pack of beer is in the cooler. The mom job is to access the google doc which identifies what food is needed, and what has already been spoken, signs up for an entrée, and makes that entrée so that the hockey party food is a little more diversified than chips and – you know – beer.
• Booking the hotel rooms for away tournaments. There will be an email from the team manager about a group booking at a conveniently located hotel and there will be a deadline. It’s my job to make sure that deadline is not missed; otherwise, if we are forced to stay at another hotel, the entire away tournament experience will be an unmitigated disaster (so I’ve been told). 
• Doing all the hockey laundry. The gear may stay in the garage or basement for the season, but once in awhile the undergear and hockey socks must be cleaned. Have you ever heard that medical student trick of putting Vicks VapoRub under your nose before their first autopsy? That’s no med student trick, that’s a skillful hockey mom at work! This is a job for the most resilient of characters – and the loving hockey mom!
• Putting on my Chef Hockey Mom hat. No, dinner is not always at 6:00PM; it’s whenever the game is not. One day that may be at 4:00PM, another day that may be 8:00PM (or both!). Stay tuned for the weekly menu selections and serving times.
• Enlisting for Den Mom duty (for my daughter’s hockey team, anyway). I like The Weeknd at maximum volume level, really I do. I can’t feel my ear drums. When the music and the shrieking get too loud for me, I volunteer to fill the water bottles. Far more peaceful.
• Arranging carpools for any upcoming (and ongoing) calendar discrepancies. “Who’s driving who?” is the question, and this hockey mom usually has the answer.
• Making the noisemakers for the season. It’s one of the biggest hockey mom controversies: are you pro- or anti-noisemaker? I am decidedly pro and my husband is decidedly against. Therefore? Mom job.
• Writing the team fee cheque and submitting to the treasurer. This one usually hurts the most. It does not fall solely to me to make sure there’s enough money to clear that cheque but it is this mom’s job to make sure it gets submitted on time.

Among the dad jobs in our household, I do take for granted that the hockey equipment is there and the skates are sharpened. It’s possible that the dad job list is equally as long as the mom job but I doubt it! It’s a tough job and the hockey mom is just the one to do it!

Three cheers for the hockey mom – for she is one busy lady!