Her Bad Mother

Friday, February 15, 2008

Blades Of Glory

If there was any doubt that my daughter is, indeed, Canadian, this should settle it: she has, at the age of two, decided that she wants to be a hockey player.


(She also wants to be a princess, which she does not see as posing any contradictions to her hockey aspirations. She will be, she informs us, Princess Hockey. That's a whole 'nother post.)


She has to learn to skate, first. We're working on that. She's picking it up pretty quickly, except for the part where she keeps insisting upon leaving the rink to find hockey sticks, and real hockey players:



Which I would probably find more interesting if I were patriotic enough to get enthusiastic about hockey and hockey players. But I'm not. My Canadian-ness stops somewhere between maple syrup and Broken Social Scene. So. The toddler-wants-to-be-a-hockey-princess thing? Only cool inasmuch at it represents an interesting implosion of gender expectations. And, perhaps, inasmuch as it compels my husband to don hockey skates and flex his butt-muscles. Otherwise, I'd have to say that I'd rather she take up violin. Which she could totally do in a hockey outfit. And I wouldn't have to freeze my ass off and drink bad coffee at an ice rink.

I joke. I love that she wants to play hockey in a tutu. Subverting princess-ism and hockey machismo all in one go. Now if we could just get the boy, when he arrives, to aspire toward cowboy-violin artistry, or ballerina-firefighting, we'll be a post-graduate gender studies seminar.

AWESOME.


44 Comments:

Blogger flutter said...

she so rocks

9:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good for her! I love sports, but could never skate! If I could I WISH I could play hockey.

9:55 PM  
Blogger Janet said...

That last bit of her walking down the long corridor with the ice rink beside her could totally be a Tim Hortons commercial.

10:04 PM  
Blogger Niksmom said...

That just totally made my night. She is so freaking awesome. Yes, I can see her little tutu-hiney racing down the ice slamming a puck into the face of the goalie now! Giggle.

10:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eh? You sure you're Canadian?!? LOL.

I think it is awesome that she wants to be a hockey princess (or Princess Hockey) - she totally rocks! But I agree, sitting in the freezing rink drinking bad coffee? NO THANKS!!

10:10 PM  
Blogger Karen MEG said...

I'm so impressed that she's on skates already, Princess hockey, that's so cute! Mabye she'll get it out of her system and trade it in for violin strings yet... be prepared to hear dying cow in the early years, though. That's pretty much what beginning violin sounded like to me!

10:39 PM  
Blogger Mayberry said...

She has some SKILLZ to be walking around on skates like that!

10:40 PM  
Blogger Jess said...

Awesome! Whatta girl!

10:44 PM  
Blogger Heather said...

The Hockey Princess. Sounds like a great children's book.

10:57 PM  
Blogger MommyTime said...

Excellent. Though my son (4) eschews all things princess, he has already taught my daughter the value of the super-cape -- which I am actually quite excited about. And the both love to play kitchen. I don't know if I can get him to wear a tutu with his hockey skates :) But any little bit of tackling the gender boundaries I can get, I'll take. Good for your daughter!

11:15 PM  
Blogger Lady M said...

She has the cutest face, looking through that hockey mask!

My husband dances and his sister plays rugby. He also loves football and she's an artist, so it's a nice mix of gender-stereotypes broken and confirmed. :)

11:19 PM  
Blogger Lawyer Mama said...

I love your daughter!

T and I were just wondering the other day if the boys were old enough to learn to skate at 2 and 3. I guess that answers that question!

12:13 AM  
Blogger Jezer said...

Princess Hockey. What a beautiful concept. She rocks.

6:43 AM  
Blogger the dragonfly said...

Absolutely precious. Princess Hockey!

I actually very much like hockey. :)

My husband keeps talking about his son the wrestler, etc. My response is always, "and what if he wants to take ballet?" He laughs, but I really think he would be okay with that. He says he can be whatever he wants to be. :)

6:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love how she walks so darn good on those blades! I would have tipped over the first time I stood up. She's so cute!

10:22 AM  
Blogger Kyla said...

Look at her walking in those skates! I'm way impressed!!

10:47 AM  
Blogger motherbumper said...

She does look like a drunk old lady on skates - or me on skates... which I guess would mean a drunk old lady on skates. We *heart* Wondergirl.

10:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ha. That rocks.

10:58 AM  
Blogger Maman said...

Didn't I just see Princess Hockey on the Disney Channel? Oh, and are you planning on turning her into a goalie? Love the helmet...

12:05 PM  
Blogger Cloud said...

If you ever need proof that you've done well at raising her amongst all the crap gender messages society throws at her... come back and read this post. You're clearly doing a great job!

(BTW, I've been lurking for awhile and love your blog. You write well, and about interesting topics. Once I started reading I understood why you are on the blogrolls at so many other blogs I read. Thanks for the blog!)

12:05 PM  
Blogger Sarcasta-Mom said...

I LOVE it. What a doll. I'm with you on the not loving hockey, or freezing your ass off in general, but it is awsome to see a tiny princess in skates. Good luck with the cowboy violinist. lol

12:41 PM  
Blogger Julie Marsh said...

Tacy took her first skating lesson this morning! She hasn't mentioned anything about being a hockey princess, but I think that approach definitely takes the curse off the princess aspirations.

2:42 PM  
Blogger Cammy said...

This post rocks. I'm all for ballerina firefighter and princess hockey players (even though my own Canadian identity does not include an affection for hockey).

3:12 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

She walks better on skates than I do!

3:27 PM  
Blogger Mrs. T said...

There IS a movie called "Go Figure" that's about a girl hockey player who really wants to be a figure skater. Cute.

4:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Too cute! I love that she's dreaming big!!!

5:58 PM  
Blogger Angela said...

Oh this is awesome. As a mom to a 7 year old girl hockey play, I salute you both. You will have a blast with this.....

6:23 PM  
Blogger moplans said...

Totally awesome. Sign me up for that course.

I need to get my kid some skates.

9:29 PM  
Blogger crazymumma said...

yo. wondergirl.

yo!

10:19 PM  
Blogger PunditMom said...

Nothing wrong with a princess hockey skater. Just don't tell her PunditGirl is into figure skating -- I don't want to see that brawl on the ice!

2:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

She is completely adorable!! My 2 year old daughter has already informed us of her "pincess" status, and she can kick a soccer ball like nobody's business. Think I could get a Princess Soccer league going?

5:51 PM  
Blogger the new girl said...

AAAhh hahaha.

That's the best. The hockey rink NEEDS a princess.

For real.

6:56 PM  
Blogger kittenpie said...

I loved that phase when Pumpkinpie was two and would wear a tutu with a construction helmet and toolbelt. LOVED it. Just as it ought to be - pick the best of any world, mash it up, and make it yours. Isn't that what we would hope for our daughters, ideally? Then three hit... sigh.

7:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My mom put me in figure skating to learn how to skate so that I could play hockey. Unfortunately for her, I loved figure skating and doing those jumps. Never made it to hockey skates.

9:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the idea of Princess Hockey!
She is adorable.

10:33 PM  
Blogger josetteplank.com said...

"And I wouldn't have to freeze my ass off and drink bad coffee at an ice rink."

Don't even joke.

This is so my life right now.

I'll tell you what... there are a bunch of girls on the mixed-gender hockey teams around here, and they are all the long hair, girly-girly looking types. But when they are out there skating, you can't tell who's who.

I get all "I am woman, hear me roar through my lipsticked mouth" when I see them.

3:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the key to her enjoying hockey is to make sure that she becomes a Canadiens fan and not a Leafs fan! (Are either of you from Montreal?)

8:24 AM  
Blogger Her Bad Mother said...

Neither of us are from Montreal, tho' HBF's dad was born there. By rights she should become a Canucks fan, seeing as I'm Vancouver born and raised, but I'm betting that she'll go NY Rangers or something like that.

But no - no Leafs. The poor grammatical composition of their name bugs me, so she'll be dissuaded.

9:22 AM  
Blogger Hannah said...

Who knew that the downside to gender equality was that any Canadian mom can be condemned to freezing their ass off at the rink before sunup, regardless of whether they have boys or girls?

Gah.

So awesome.

1:51 PM  
Blogger Cursing Mama said...

In Minnesota (the State of Hockey) we call hockey players in tutu's figure skaters. I can personally assure you that both kinds of skaters are just fine and as a rink parent you get used to the bad coffee, cold toes and absolutely insane hours of & for practice. I'm still not used to the relish for my hot dogs though, it's nuclear green.

3:13 PM  
Blogger Miscellaneous-Mum said...

Well I'll be joining you with a son who's got his very manly (and Australian) cricket set but would rather do dancing to Rhianna.


yuh- huh

1:13 AM  
Blogger Angela said...

What an awesome little girl, all hail Princess Hockey, she rules!

9:57 AM  
Blogger Diana said...

She walks better on skates than I ever did!

1:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We're inspired. Would love to see footage of her on the ice!

10:15 PM  

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