There are a lot of kids in hockey tryouts right now. One of the inevitable realities of competitive hockey is that your child will be cut from a team at some point in their minor hockey career. 

Getting cut from a hockey team sucks. No two ways about it. And there are two ways for a hockey mom to deal with their kid getting cut: the right way and the wrong way.

Want some advice on how to deal with your child getting cut from a competitive hockey team? No? Let me give you an earful anyway. 

Blame the coach.
I mean, how could getting cut possibly have anything to do with your child? Clearly this coach is a clueless wonder. You should tell him or her so –preferably in front of your child. Don’t even bother asking for any feedback on your child’s game – what do they know anyway? There’s nothing they can tell you about your kid’s game that could possibility help him in future tryouts.

Make it about you.
Who cares that your child didn’t even want to try out for a competitive hockey team and just wanted to play house league. You know for a fact that they’re better than that, and sure as the Leafs will win another Stanley Cup, your kid is a shoo-in for that Division 1 US scholarship. After all, you practically got that scholarship too, didn’t you? If it weren’t for all the featherbrained coaches you had through the years, you’d have played for Team Canada too.

Make sure you do all the talking.
Your child should never have been cut and you know it. No point letting them tell you how they feel about it. The only way to validate their feelings of devastation, disappointment and depression is to NEVER let them mention it. Or better yet, you could help them out by picking apart their tryout minute by minute. Criticize every drill they undertook and give them a blow-by-blow report of what you think they did wrong. And no dinner for them tonight! That’s the way to make sure they’ll never do that again.

Point out all the negatives.
What’s the point in looking at this as a learning opportunity? Losers do that! You just wasted $125 on a tryout and an entire weekend. What a waste! Maybe you should just make them pay you back for the tryout fee because you sure as heck didn’t get your money’s worth.

Take a stand.
You should show that lower level hockey team or house league hockey team your child was eventually assigned to, that you’re not going to stand for any baloney. In fact, don’t even show up for the first practice. That’ll show them. You make your own high road – it’s the principle of the thing. Every parent on that team will know that your child was unfairly cut.

Sigh.

(Note from Hockey Mom Obvious: this would be the wrong way to approach it!) 

Safe to say, that if this is the way you handle your child getting cut from a hockey team, you’re probably on a fast-track to a league executive hearing or an outright ban from the association. 

Three cheers for all those kids tryout out this fall – and the supportive hockey moms who will help them through it all! 

This blog was originally posted on August 24, 2015. Come back next Monday for new Mom Mondays post from everyone's favourite hockey mom, Astra Groskaufmanis.