Snow Day, Horray!

Snow Day, Yeah!

Like leap year or a bigfoot sighting, a rare thing occurred today. No Youth Hockey!

No basketball either or indoor soccer or gymnastics or ballet or karate. Organized sports is taking a day off due to bad weather and overblown media hype.

What, oh what to do!

Get outside!

 

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Bundle your little creatures up in as much fleece and water-resistant super-fibers as you can muster and send them out into the elements. Let them dig snow tunnels and build forts. Let them catch snowflakes on their tongues. Let them play! Even better, go play with them.

Just avoid falling trees and be sure to have some hot chocolate standing by.

Too often we rush our children from one practice or another, from an after-school art program to a music lesson to a hockey practice without allowing for some good old-fashioned free play time with friends real and imaginary.

Too often in those rare hours of nothing to do we let them squat in front of the TV or curl up in their closet caves with the ipad.

Today is a day to play. It’s a day for basement baseball and hallway hockey. It’s a day for chess and Candyland. We might take a break in the afternoon to watch the Boxtrolls for the 53rd time but that’s okay because we’ve earned a rest…especially after they helped dig out the cars and gather some firewood which I convinced them was a Suviorman Skills Competition.

Snow days are a rare moment in our busy lives to make the most of nothing to do. Let us not waste it because tomorrow, school or no-school, hockey practice is on!s

Travis Baker

About Travis Baker

Travis Baker grew up playing baseball, basketball, football and soccer. There was a brief stint with karate and a briefer one with fencing but he would not return to the glory days of youth sport until he moved to Maine and had a couple of boys, Zane (11) and August (7), of his own. Inspired by his lads, he learned to play hockey at the age of 35 and now plays every Monday night in Brewer. Thanks to a number of former students, he’s learned a wee bit about lacrosse, field hockey and track and field. When not helping out in his kid’s activities, is the award-winning playwright of One Blue Tarp and Hair Frenzy, both of which premiered at the Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor. Travis is the author of Night and the Texas Sky, and numerous short stories and essays. He is married to the founder of Maine Yoga Adventures, Holly Twining. Currently, he coaches hockey, baseball and serves on the board of the Maine Junior Black Bears as the PR Director.