Barrister's obnoxious thread full of smug parenting stories

[Grey Fox]

You are doing your country proud, B. Hats off to you, hats off.

[Barrister]

So during supper tonight...

out of the blue Timmy asks me "Dad, do you know what a dike is"?

I very rapidly answer "It's a thing that holds back water".

Timmy goes - "That's right!".

Tracy and I share a look, then burst out laughing.  We refuse to explain why.



A little bit later, Andrew says out of the blue "three groups of three is nine".



I respond "that's right!  Do you know what four groups of three is"?

Andrew thinks about it for awhile, before saying "twelve".

My kindergartener is spontaneously doing multiplication.  I was super-duper proud.

[Grey Fox]

*high fives*

[derspiess]

Nice.  Smart kids figure things out for themselves a lot of the time.  I generally try to stay out of my kids' way

[Barrister]

With the road finally being snow and ice free, we dug out the kids bikes a week or two ago.  At first Andrew wants to keep riding his bike with training wheels.  But last night we urge him to try riding a two-wheeler - and he takes off no problem. 

[Barrister]

We're into hockey evaluation season now.

First step was one week ago.  On labour day monday Tim and I trudged down to the rink and he had to do three timed skating drills (two chances at each) - forwards, backwards, and then through some pylons while stickhandling a puck.

This last weekend was step two.  Based on their skating times they get divided into five groups.  They play a one hour scrimmage, with neutral evaluators from a different part of the city taking notes on each kid.  Because I'm a coach for my little kids, I start getting a serious of increasingly frantic emails about how they need volunteers to help run these scrimmage games.  So I sign up to help out.

That means on SUnday I spent about 4 hours at the rink watching all the other kids games.  I realize that the teams have been organized based on ability - that the first group of the day had the roughest skating, and each group after improved from there.  Tim is in the last group - which meant he did really well in his skating evaluation!

After my four hours, my shifts are done and I go to pick up Tim and come back to the rink.  He tells me he's tired because he's been playing with his brothers all day.  And when the game starts: well first let me tell you some of these kids are really, really good.  A couple were even picking corners of the net.  Tim though - while his skating was fine, he just didn't battle for any pucks.

So much for my momentary dream that Tim was going to make Tier 1...

[Syt]

Well, he can still be a speed or figure skater.

[Barrister]

Don't be crazy.


At the start of things I'd have been very happy if he made Tier 2 (out of 7 tiers).  And since they're apparently going to have 2 tier 2 teams, that still may happen.

[derspiess]

Yeah, you gotta keep your kid fresh if it's an important game day or try-out day.  I still remember my baseball coaches telling us not to go swimming the day of a game or we'll be too tired to give our best.

I give Tommy unlimited Fortnite access if I want him to preserve his energy the day of or night before a game

Your kid will be fine-- I bet he'll dominate at Tier 2 or whatever the level is called below 1.

[Barrister]

Yeah, you gotta keep your kid fresh if it's an important game day or try-out day.  I still remember my baseball coaches telling us not to go swimming the day of a game or we'll be too tired to give our best.

I give Tommy unlimited Fortnite access if I want him to preserve his energy the day of or night before a game

Your kid will be fine-- I bet he'll dominate at Tier 2 or whatever the level is called below 1.

Yeah - why put an important try-out at 4pm on a Sunday?

I'll have to consider the deploying energy-saving devices like the Nintendo before his last evaluation game.

Yeah, I don't think he's quite Tier 1 speed - and since they tier all the way down to tier 7, tier 2 (if he makes it there) is still pretty good.

[Admiral Yi]

But now he can't go pro Beeb.  Failure!

[Barrister]

But now he can't go pro Beeb.  Failure!

He has my genes.  There's no way he's going pro. #sadbuttrue

And the good news was he wasn't downgraded to the next level below for his last evaluation (got the new results tonight).  AND the order of the evaluations is reversed - so his group will be first next weekend.  So that, plus I'll have a gentle talk with him just about how I want him to battle to get the puck and not just let the other team take it, he should do okay.

[derspiess]

Tell him to think of something that makes him mad when he's out there.  That seems to work for my kid when I want him to be more aggressive in sports.

[Barrister]

Funny, the last time I bumped this thread was also to talk about Tim's hockey...  because lots of what I was talking about in September continued to apply.

Sure enough he made the Tier 2 team.  And after the first three months of the season, with his team not winning a single game (and getting badly out-played), they bumped the team down to Tier 3.  Then even in Tier 3 they struggled.  Tim played exclusively defence this year (which I don't think is a great idea at this age, but didn't want to argue it with the coach).  Tim's skating is still good, he has good defensive awareness, but he's still afraid to try and carry the pick - always looking to pass.  A couple of months ago he had the puck, was almost all alone going towards the other team's net - when he stopped sharply at the blue line, looking behind him for a forward to pass to.

But the last couple of months the team has really put it all together.  Tim will now at least fire the puck towards the net at times - they did a fun "skills competition" during the year where they found Tim to have the 2nd hardest shot, so coach keeps urging him to use it - even if he hasn't scored any goals.  He's also really solid defensively.  And after half a year he finally starts battling for pucks.

The playoffs started last weekend.  It's minor hockey, so of course every team makes it.  They do a 3 game round-robin.  Top 8 teams make it to the quarter-finals.  Well Tim's team won 2 of 3 in round robin, and handily beat the other team 5-2 in their quarter-final game.

So now they're on to the city semi-finals next Saturday!



And middle kid Andrew has turned it on too.  He plays cross-ice, no score kept games.  I'm one of his coaches so I will be out on the ice with him.  For much of the year I would have to yell "Andrew watch the puck!" as he'd be off skating in one corner when the puck is off on the other side of the ice.  But something clicked for him too - he's now reliably near the puck, tries to play the puck, and has scored several goals recently.

[crazy canuck]

My younger boy tried hockey.  He was terrible at it, having not skated while still in the crib, but he had a lot of fun.  His highlight was scoring a winning over time goal in the final to win.  Well ok, the coach told him to stand in front of the net (he was the biggest kid); the goalie let a rebound go right at him; and as he spun around to try to shoot the puck he fell, lifting the puck over the goalie.  The kids on his team went wild - it was the only goal he scored that year.

And then he retired his skates.