Word Spy - hockey mom

hockey mom

n. A woman with hockey-playing children, particularly one who spends lots of time driving her children to the rink and watching their games and practices.

Example Citations:

Two years into their marriage, Art Major's wife gave him an ultimatum: Your stinky hockey gear goes, she told him, or I go. ...

When he couldn't find a Washington-area company to clean his hockey equipment, Art spent $80,000 of household savings on an industrial washing machine and started GearClean Inc.

The firm quickly branched out into cleaning firefighting gear, horse blankets, gooey pizza delivery bags and anything else that needs disinfecting or serious sanitizing but won't fit into a regular washing machine. Even so, Art says, his core clients remain "hockey moms tired of driving their minivans around with smelly hockey gear in the back."
—Katherine Shaver, "Making It: A Hockey Player Discovers The Sweet Smell Of Success," The Washington Post, April 13, 2008

Cowpoke singer-songwriter Corb Lund calls fellow Albertan Tim Hus "one of my favorite Canadian songwriters."

He's the closest thing to a young Stompin' Tom Connors you can get without committing identity theft.

Bush Pilot Buckaroo is Hus' fourth album featuring his patented style of hard edged, frontier country rock. Whether singing about cowboys in pickups, bush pilots, hockey moms, miners or roadhouse bands, Hus' musical portraits of blue-collar Canadians ring true.
—Robert Reid, "Canadian blues dipped in southern flavour," Guelph Mercury, July 24, 2008

Earliest Citation:

"The first time out here they couldn't even walk," Moore said, watching the action from the sidelines where a dozen or so parents stood bundled up watching their kids in the chill. "The sixth or seventh time they're moving around pretty good."

The falling down can get frustrating for some youngsters.

"We stress to moms: Don't take them off the ice," said Darlene Mize, president of the Hockey Moms. "We tell them: 'Try. Give it your best shot.' That's the name of the game."
—Roger Catlin, "An Early Shot At the Puck," The Omaha World-Herald, December 15, 1985

Notes:

Yes, I know, there's nothing all that new about the phrase hockey mom, except perhaps its sudden fame thanks to U.S. Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's embrace of the term. The phrase dates to 1985 in print, though I suspect it's older than that. The phrase hockey mother dates to 1980:

Weekends from September to March, Jeannie Glennon of Laurel lives, breathes, thinks, eats and sleeps ice hockey. She spends hours driving from one game to another. She is a hockey fan's hockey fan. She cheers. She grieves. Never, if she can help it, does she miss a game. She has been doing this almost 10 years. Once she went to four hockey games in three states and the District of Columbia the same day.

Glennon is a hockey mother.
—Bart Barnes, "Kids in Sports: It's a Real Family Affair," The Washington Post, December 12, 1980

Here's the earliest citation I could find for The Joke:

I know I'm going to hate myself for this, but all this talk has reminded me of a joke that fits in so well with the subject matter that I can't stop myself from telling it. Or can I? I suppose I could. In fact, it's better that I just leave you now, before I lose the last shred of dignity I possess.

Arrg. What the heck. You've already followed me down the road this far, what's another kilometre or two? OK, here's the joke: What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? The answer? Lipstick.
—Shannon McKinnon, "A clear tube of lip balm in a passion-red world," The Daily Herald-Tribune (Grande Prairie, Alberta), September 23, 2003

Ah, but check this out:

What's the difference between a barracuda and a hockey mom? I was asked recently.

Lipstick.
—Jim Coyle, "Time to take the pledge, hockey dads," Toronto Star, November 24, 2001

Categories:

People
Pregnancy and Parenting

Posted on September 19, 2008