Yesterday’s Friday shinny pre-game conversation surfaced an interesting measure of how much a parent loves their children. It started with some commenting about road trips and the miles that some parents drive over the course of a weekend, season or indeed, for the entire duration of raising children, when said children play rep level hockey. While this could apply to any activity requiring out of town participation, this chat happened in a hockey setting so we’re going with hockey as the domain in question.

A neighbor of someone in the room I was told, thinks nothing of driving to Ottawa for a single game on a Saturday. One of the lads joked that he is still doing that kind of mileage in his 50’s and he doesn’t even have a kid on the team.

A buddy sitting next to me said he laid out the family-team “identity” early in his kids’ lives – he told them he loved them enough to drive them anywhere within 30 minutes of home, but his fatherly love stopped there.

Love measured in physical distance to a rink – gotta luv the mind of a hockey player.