Used Hockey Skates? Priceless.

David and Spencer love to skate. Their friends all play hockey and we have an outdoor rink within walking distance so when the weather permits--that means anything warmer than 10 below--the boys grab their skates and head for the ice.

The trouble is that they don't have skates. At least not hockey skates, they've got Grace's old figure skates. Not black, but girly-white. From their big sister.

I'm a rather frugal person (Andrew says the word is "frugal" not "cheap") it's my job to budget our resources and I take that responsibility pretty seriously. My philosophy is that it's better if children aren't given everything that they want, that every person--from children to adults--should have things that they long for that they can't have, it's part of being a human being (or at least a normal human being) and staying well-grounded. You know, builds character. Besides, I can spot pork from a clean mile and after nearly 15 years as CEO of this operation I know what's in and what gets left on the Wish List--and it's kept us in the red. Well, most of the time.

So just knowing that even a cheap pair of hockey skates start at $70 was enough to keep the boys from asking. They aren't ready for Wall Street but they know enough to know that $140 can make Mom grumpy and they opted to keep quiet, thinking that hockey skates were a luxury they'd never know until birthdays or holidays hit, and instead reached for the hand-me-down girls skates whenever the urge to play hit.

Normally this wouldn't bother me too much, I've tried to teach the kids not to care about what others think of their sense of style--or lack thereof--but this was different. This was my boys wearing girls skates and it didn't set well with me. Though they never said anything and their friends appeared not to care as I watched them trying to body check each other while wearing white figure skates I felt bad. I'm trying to raise boys (which can be a challenge nowadays) and to tell my sons that they had to wear girls' stuff seemed an uncomfortable change in policy--an inconsistency in parenting.

But regardless of my inclinations or meditations their feet grew and with the increasing complaints of smashed toes my mother guilt also grew until I decided that maybe--just maybe--on this issue I needed to creak open the purse and get the boys some skates of their own.

I hadn't completely divorced myself from my sense of frugality so I took them to Play It Again Sports so see if there was a chance in this entire state of Alaska of finding some decent second-hand skates in their sizes at the end of the season. Unbelievably (though I did say this is Alaska) they had shelves of skates left ranging anywhere from $13-$279.

Two hundred and seventy-nine??? Don't get me started on what those things must have cost new and the obvious, certifiable insanity of any person who'd pay $279, let alone full price, for a pair of used (apparently gold-plated) size 4 hockey skates. Don't they realize little Billy Gates, Jr. will outgrow them in less than a year?

But beyond the probability of science and logic we found two pairs of used skates with plenty of growing room for together nearly half the price of one pair of new skates. They were obviously used--one needed replacement laces and both needed sharpening--but the boys clutched them and hugged them to their chests as if the skates had been worn by the Great Gretzky himself.

Smiling all the way home they said nothing but "Thank you thank you thank you" until, slightly puzzled I asked: "So, you aren't--um--disappointed about having used skates?"

"NO!" They said together.

"Why not?"

"Well," Spencer said, "These ones are great and, well, we know new skates are expensive. We don't need brand new skates. These are new enough."

I smiled when he said this. To have your children realize that money doesn't mean happiness, that material things are fun but not that important, that they don't need to have the latest toy to have fun and to truly know the value of something made me glad to be their mom. They're good kids and it was fun to be able to give them something small that meant so much. Here's to used skates.

Technorati tags: hockey, ice skating, children, Alaska, parenting