Packing for a hockey tournament

What you need to not forget for the next hockey tournament: (*Note I found alot of these as helpful hints from a soccer mom)


1) SUV or Minvan—required to carry one kid plus items #2-31

2) Sports specific equipment and uniform. In my case, hockey equipment:(Helmet (that fits), extra screws for helmet(they always fall out at the most inconvenient time), stick, cup, garter (or shorts with velcro), matching hockey socks,neck guard, mouth guard (and extras), hockey pants, hockey tape, stick and back up stick and for those moms/dads lucky enough to be the parent of a goalie, don't forget the blocker, pads and glove.

3) Cooler—filled with Gatorade, water, grapes, other fruit that is easy to keep and fun to throw

4) Igloo waterbottle-1 quart size at least

5) The kids (and your) other clothes like pajamas, underwear, jackets, flip flops for the pool at the hotel, sweatshirts and gloves and hats for those, cold, cold rinks.

6) seats for the bleachers to keep your bum warm

7) Your kids regular medicine…who can forget that tournament that someone forgot their child’s Ritalin?

8) Advil, Tylenol, Benadryl (never know when someone is going to have a reaction to something.)

9) Band-aids, Neosporin

10) Car Paint, in case you win the tournament. You can drive home in an embarrasing show of glory.

11) Camera, video camera, film, batteries and battery chargers

12) D.S. or psp or handheld game of choice.

13) Ipod/laptop/cell phone and all required chargers.

14) DVDs for car ride

15) Your GPS system

16) MapQuests (my GPS seems to fail at the worst time, lose signals in a storm or tell me to turn right now when we are on a bridge, but that is a whole other story)-**before the trip it is extremely PRUDENT to get the address of your hotel, the rink you will be playing at, and the restaurant you are having your team dinners at. Then create and print out maps from home to hotel, hotel to rink, etc. It’s even more PRUDENT to actually bring these on the trip (I have a mental block on that step for some reason).

17) List of Cellphone numbers (in addition to them being plugged into your cellphone) for the other parents, coaches, and teammates for when you or they are lost or your team caravan from rink to restaurant gets split up

18) Earplugs (even if the kids have a bedtime curfews-some of the parents like to party and don't realize how loud they are outside your door).

19) Hotel with bar

20) Valium or any other member of the Diazepam family

21) Back-up hotel in case you get kicked out of the original one (high likelihood)

22) Bathing suits and goggles for siblings of the athletes- One of the very few BENEFITS for the poor siblings who must be dragged to these events is that they get to swim in the hotel pool and the athletes don’t (or atleast between games, the athletes don't). It certainly doesn’t make it worth it to them, but at least they have the POOL.

23) Deck of cards, magazines, games (remember the games or events are often just a small portion of the day, you must find a way to fill the rest of the day with “quiet, resting” type activities…Not Allowed are: swimming, working out in the hotel weight room, one coach even banned going to the mall as it was too much walking, and running up and down the halls or stairs of the hotels, etc.

24) Extra set of car keys for when you can't find them or lock them in the car.

25) Lots and lots of money and credit cards to buy all the sweatshirts and hats and $40 action photos of your children taken at the tournament.

26) The kid

27) toiletry case and everything in it
28)*books/mags for mom to read, People/US others are great to buy and read and share w/other moms....when else do you have 48 hours to do nothing but catch up on Lindsay Lohan, Brittany and whoever happens to be hot at the moment.
29)*kids backpack and homework and novel so s/he can get homework and required reading done in the car or hotel
30) Crockpot with meal to offer for when we rent a banquet room and need to provide a hot meal.
31) Snacks, snacks and more snacks. (Snacks and drinks at the rink will run you a small fortune)



I have at one time or another forgotten nearly every item on this list, some of them numerous times. Actually, as I re-read over the list the only one I haven’t ever forgotten is #1, which would be impossible. So, clearly I’m an experienced idiot.
The good news is there is a Wal-Mart in every town and the coach forgot to specifically say “No going to Wal-Mart”, so that is often how we fill our time between games. Good Luck

If anyone can come up with more, please let me know.