Little girl on DS's ice hockey team and locker room question

[Geoff_M]

Team meetings can still be done in a locker room. Forgive my ignorance, but do sports teams usually have meetings at the same time everyone is getting dresed or do they have them after everyone is settled and can give undivided attention? If it is the later, then I still don't see an issue. Split the time between the genders for everyone to dress, then everyone pile in to the locker room for the talk.

Before hockey games there are often "team meetings" once everyone's dressed and the Zamboni is on the ice. Agenda items can include the player lines that's be used in the game, reminders about things the coaches want the players to remember etc. There also can be info passed out from the coaches to the parents while the kids are getting ready (ice schedules, rosters, snack schedules, team photo info, etc.) As pointed out, the best venue for a team meeting is the team locker room. You can close the door and shut out all the noise and distractions outside (Zamboni, players and parents from the previous game running around and talking in the halls, etc.)

This really is not a complex problem. Just share the time in the locker room so that everyone can comfortably get dressed. Unfortunately, this is not a problem only found in sports. As I said before, I have dealt with this very issue for my son for many years. As long as one has a child with gender in the majority, they just don't seem to understand the concept of sharing TIME in the ONLY dressing room/locker room. It's easier to just say, "Go use the bathroom or the closet."

You are correct this isn't a complex problem or issue. There's lots of ways kids (pre and post-puberty) can deal with it. Some kids that are uncomfortable go put their pants on in a locker room bathroom stall, others wear roomy boxers or PJ bottoms, some girls only strip down to a T-shirt and silky jogging shorts that they wear as a bottom layer, others partially dress at home.

As for the issues of showers, I have yet to see any of my Bantam son's team take a post-game shower. Nowadays a lot of kids (my son included) prefer to avoid open "group" showers. They prefer to shower back at home, in private, afterwards (if at all).

 

[KatheeME]

[QUOTE

It is only the "boys" locker room when the boys have hit puberty & will be taking showers. When we are talking about a bunch of 7-10 y/o kids, you don't need to worry about it - it is strictly "team room".[/QUOTE]

Sorry but I DO need to worry, all parents of daughters do. Until people realize they HAVE to change, for equality, I guess they never will. Sigh.

 

[declansdad]

[Sorry but I DO need to worry, all parents of daughters do. Until people realize they HAVE to change, for equality, I guess they never will. Sigh.

This is not an equality issue.

 

[momof2inPA]

WOW! I can't believe that any 8 year old would want to get undressed in front of their own parent of the opposite sex- much less a person not a family member.

Seriously? You find it strange for a boy child to get dressed in front of his mom?

 

[ToyStory Fan]

It's painfully obvious from alot of the posts here that several of you are commenting on an area where you really have no clue...not trying to sound offensive, but if you don't have a kid that plays hockey you really shouldn't chime in. Getting a child (7-10) dressed for hockey is no easy task...I've seen some people do it in 10-15 minutes, I've seen others take as much as a 1/2 hour - and no they really can't help each other. As an instructor - I can't tell you how many times I've seen parents dress their kids incorrectly - if an adult can't get it right, it's not conceivable that a 7 year old would either. And for the poster who said they would've liked written instructions...believe me on the rare occasion that I was not able to make it to my DS's practice I had to provide a sheet of instructions for my DW. It is NOTHING like getting a child dressed for soccer or baseball or any of the other equipment-less sports.

A few things to mention about rinks - usually each rink has 4 locker rooms - that's right 4. 2 for the home teams and 2 for the visiting teams - well that should solve things you say - wrong, because there is 1 set of lockers for the game that is on the ice presently, and then there is another set for the upcoming game - again why you ask - because a) ice time costs money and you need to maximize the number of games over the cvourse of the day, b) it only takes 10 minutes between ice cuts and it would take a lot longer than that to get a team undressed (coach's comments about the game) and get a new team in, dressed and coach's pre-game meeting.

Additionally, playing travel hockey (at least on my DS's team) has certain requirements with respect to dress code and arrival times - must be at the game at least 30 min prior to start, must arrive at rink dressed in khakis and button-up shirt or team warm-up suit - this most important - must be game ready (i.e. parents out of the locker room) by the time the zamboni hits the ice just prior to start of our game.

So - for everyone who has all these great suggestions about different rooms and share the same room at different times - I applaud your comments however un-informed they may be. The reality is, now more than ever girls playing sports alongside boys is getting more and more popular and people need to recognize it - whether it be the rink managers/owners, or coaches or parents of the girls playing on what is considered a "boy's team". We are fortunate enough in our area to have recently started a few "girl's teams", but in the house leagues and still even on the boy's travel teams - girls want to and will continue to play.

People are making this out to be an issue of equality or privacy - it's not. It's a bunch of kids sharing a common interest in a great team sport. Not every kid can play hockey - skating is an acquired skill - unlike walking/running...these kids at 7 and 8 years old are balancing and moving on 1/8" wide steel blades - they learned to skate to play this game...what we need to do as parents is work with what we have for facilities and changing rooms etc. to keep it safe, fun and to keep them interested in it for as long as they want to do it - not argue and point fingers at how it should be or how it is not fair about the changing room situations. It would be a shame for a kid to lose interest in this game jsut because of a locker room issue - there's alot of crative ways around it - underarmour was mentioned, coming to the rink dressed (if allowed) - changing into hockey pants etc in the bathroom and then walking back to the lockers. If your kid wants to play you owe it to him or her to work out the logistics...that's how I feel about it anyway.