For hockey dads

[rawkstar 45]

This was a pretty crazy article, thought it was worth sharing.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/patrick-osullivan-nhl-abuse/

[bolt91 31]

Wow. Thank you for the post. Incredibly sad that he had to go through that for all those years.

[Chadd 916]

That should be required reading for every hockey parent.

[GreatestAmericanBeardo 258]

That should be required reading for every hockey parent.

to bad there are a lot of hockey parents who still "get good ideas" from this story

[badger_14 601]

Either you have it or you don’t. All this hardass training stuff is just fluff, and it enables the same culture that allowed my father to treat me like an animal in front of other adults for so many years. It started right in the parking lot. People saw it. They just didn’t have the courage to say anything.

I’m not writing this article for my father. I’m writing it for the people in the parking lot.

This. This, I want to print in giant letters and possibly staple to the foreheads of everyone who whines about taking any of the abuse prevention courses. People who hurt children (physically, psychologically, sexually) can and will justify it any way they can. Abuse prevention programs are for everyone else, to see what's going on, and give people the confidence and resources to step in, to call someone, to do something.

O'Sullivan cannot be praised enough for writing this essay.

[JAG 20]

I've read every article in the NHL section of that blog, and they're all amazing. This one, however, was on another level.

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

Read his book, Breaking Away. It's a really good look into the distorted view of reality that some parents have for their kids' and their kids' successes, whether it be in sports, financial success, and other professions. What I found really interesting about the book, is that the abuse is still very recent and raw for Patrick O'Sullivan and he's still working to come to terms with it. It's a very honest story of someone who's still dealing with the scars of abuse and a real telling account of how people knew but just stood on the outside watching, including his own family.

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

That should be required reading for every hockey parent.

to bad there are a lot of hockey parents who still "get good ideas" from this story

Agreed. There's always a parent who'll distort an account like this and think "I would never do that with my kid" and in turn commit the same atrocities. Parents who do things like this are usually completely delusional and in total denial. Many of them don't even realize that they abused their kids cause they are so deluded and in their own little world. Patrick O'Sullivan's dad to this day, still thinks that he did what was best for his son and that his son will eventually thank him for it (according to the book)