Whining about whining

So I participate in an online bulletin board. Today I’m a little disgusted with them. More than one individual is complaining about “list management.” What is that you ask? It’s suggesting to friends and relatives who want to BUY presents for YOUR CHILDREN what said children might like.

Ummm… this is a chore?

If its so awful; decline.

Tell them to make a nice donation to charity in your children’s names. Leave it at that. De-stress. Okay, I’m not a saint. I regularly whine about problems that aren’t really problems but when so many people are struggling to make it financially. In the face of real financial hardships, to listen to people complain about the difficultly of suggesting to others what they can buy their already spoiled children really annoys me.

On another note. Our little hockey team seems to have pre-vailed again the “evil-league.” No one has been “traded” and all the kids remain with the team. Might I add that our little “superstar goal scorer” is so incredibly cute. He’s shy and humble and doesn’t know he’s as good as he is. He’s just having fun. This weekend he was over the moon excited because he had new skates (as opposed to used skates which is the norm).

So we prevailed in our arguments not to break up the team and all the kids are still together. The team is now VERY bonded (no real change with the kids most of whom had no idea anything was happening but the parents… whoa!). The on Saturday our little team met what we assumed was the best team in the league and beat them handily 4 - 0. But it gets worse because on Sunday we then played the weakest team in the league. They stopped putting the score on the board when the sixth goal went in mid-way through the first period. No one knew the real score until we saw the game sheet at the end of the game. At least it wasn’t a shut-out because the opposing team scored a goal (and we cheered oh so enthusiastically) but the final score was a hard to justify 18 – 1. Totally not our fault as the other team is not from our association (and we certainly weren’t asked to give them a player) but still a shock to everyone. It did demonstrate our point that one player wouldn’t have made a difference though – once again every player contributed. Our star got 4 goals out of 18; everyone was in on the scoring and even Kamryn got an assist. So sue us.

Okay must end on the happy – our Christmas tree is up.

STUPID

So Kamryn’s hockey team is doing extremely well this year. They are undefeated with 7 wins and 3 ties and sit at the top of the standings. We’re midway through the season and they have a good (but by no means certain) chance of finishing in first place. Yay kids! You’d think. Not so much. There are 13 teams in their division. Within that division 4 of the teams (including Kamryn’s) are from the same association. One of the teams is not doing as well as the others. They aren’t in last ploace (they’re 11th) but not all that hot either. That’s the way you’d figure it would be. Someone has to win and someone has to lose and I don’t know what they expect. Well actually I do – they expect everyone to win. In order to accomplish this – despite the fact that more than half the season is over – they want to take one of our top scorers and transfer them to the losing team. Ummm….

The losing team has done no fundraising. They are registered in no tournaments. The parents have demonstrated a spectacularly low level of support for the team (there isn't a real team manager, no assistant coaches, no one willing to organize fundraising etc.) They are good at one thing whining LOUDLY (well the parents are anyways; I suspect the kids are great). It's no surprise they are not winning games on the ice. They aren't a team. The association’s response to the whining though is to demand Kamryn's team give up a top scorer (or any other player for that matter regardless fo ability). Ummmm…. No.

We have a solid team. On and off the ice. They are really bonded. They are team mates and friends. They are 7 and 8 years old and aren't going to understand why they are being moved to a team that is inferior in every way (and I'm not talking about ability but rather attitude). It's just not fair to any of them. We’ve done a great deal of fundraising. We’ve taken team pictures; we’ve bought team jackets; we’ve played in a tournament; we’ve registered for two more. Tournament registration is closed – any player who joins our team now would not be eligible to play in those tournaments and the player we gave up would miss out despite the fact that the fundraising his parents contributed to is helping to pay for the tournament.

So the league asked for a player (the deadline for movements between teams was three weeks ago and had they asked then we would have whined and conceded we had no choice). The coaches said no. So the league, going against its own by-laws, is now trying to strong arm parents into having their child switch teams (on the mistaken assumption that some parents won’t realize their rights). It’s all gotten extremely heated and nasty and its just STUPID. These are little kids playing hockey. Let them play and stay out of it. No one is being hurt here but the kids. Leave them alone!