Hockey Weekend at the Hotel: A Front Desk Clerk’s Survival Story (With a Surprise Hero)
If you’ve ever worked the front desk at a hotel, you know that “hockey weekend” isn’t just a time on the calendar—it’s a test of your patience, sanity, and ability to keep a straight face while chaos reigns. For u/frenchynerd, the Redditor behind one of r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk’s most cathartic posts, hockey season means endless nights of wild kids, clueless (or willfully blind) parents, and the kind of stories that make you want to celebrate the end of hockey season the way other people celebrate New Year's.
This is the tale of one such night: a glorious, unhinged, and ultimately satisfying hockey evening where, for once, the front desk wasn’t the only one enforcing order.
Hockey Weekend: Not for the Faint of Heart
Let’s paint the picture. The hotel is packed—two floors with hockey teams, another with hockey guests, and every corridor echoing with the shrieks and thumps of hockey kids on a sugar high. It’s 10:00 pm. Our intrepid front desk agent is already on kid-patrol, shooing a herd of stairwell sprinters back to their rooms.
Here’s the classic move: inform the parents (usually gathered in the lobby, clutching drinks and their last shreds of dignity) that their kids are turning the hotel into an ice rink. The response? “It’s not our kids.” Like clockwork.
As u/OmegaLantern quipped in the comments, “Every kids sports weekend, always get the drunk parents going ‘It’s not OUR kids!’ in regards to their piss-poorly raised hellspawn.” Their solution? Threaten to call the cops and CPS for the “lost” children. Suddenly, every parent’s memory improves.
But on this night, as complaints build and the noise rises, our front desk hero finds an unexpected ally.
Enter: The Angry Mom (and Unlikely Hero)
Cue the guest who'd had enough. She stomps up to the desk, fire in her eyes, and, upon seeing the parents lounging in the hallway, erupts: “WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING YOUR JOB AS PARENTS? DO YOUR JOB! WHY ARE YOU LETTING THE KIDS BE WILD LIKE THAT?”
It was, as u/frenchynerd confessed, “the most satisfying thing I have witnessed during a hockey weekend.” The parents, caught off guard, finally spring into action—except for one who mutters, “who is that crazy bitch,” instantly cementing her legend status among both staff and silent onlookers.
Reddit loved her. u/Silentkiss123 wrote about being the only well-behaved kid on a family hotel trip and watching the chaos unfold, expressing disbelief at parents who “are so lax to allow their children to be so disruptive that it risks cops being called.” Many others chimed in, wishing for more parents like her—willing to break the cycle of “not my kid” denial.
When Hotel Policy Meets Parental Denial
Here’s the dirty little secret about hotel sports weekends: staff rarely have the authority, backup, or clear policy to deal with the onslaught. As u/HerfDog58 advised, “Quiet hours have now commenced… Any disturbances by adults or their children during quiet hours will result in expulsion.” If only it were that simple.
The real problem, as another commenter pointed out, is that hotels often house wildly different groups on the same floors. “Sales blocked the odd side of the halls for pee wee hockey and the even side for the horse show!” wrote u/No-Procedure5991, describing the predictable mayhem and the comped rooms that followed.
Even if there are policies, enforcement is another story. The police, as OP noted, are often “very moderately helpful”—showing up in force when someone physically grabs a kid, but shrugging off the nightly noise complaints. One user, u/asyouwish, suggested that everyone in management should work a hockey weekend—just once. Only then would rules get written and enforced.
The Aftermath (and the Lingering Fear)
Eventually, the kids are wrangled, the hallways fall silent, and the front desk breathes a sigh of relief. But there’s a twist: the Angry Mom will still be there tomorrow. As u/frenchynerd wryly put it, “She will still be there tomorrow, and I might become the next target of her anger if the teams misbehave again. That’s really scary.”
The story struck a chord with hotel workers and parents alike. Some, like u/oliviagonz10, fantasized about personally escorting rogue kids back to their parents. Others, like u/MorgainofAvalon, reminisced about their own childhood hotel shenanigans—“We would ‘explore’ the hotel, but quietly. Getting away with it was the best part.”
But the consensus was clear: hockey parents are a breed apart, and the staff deserve both hazard pay and a medal.
Final Whistle: Your Turn to Cheer (or Commiserate)
So if you’ve ever survived a sports team weekend—whether as a guest, a parent, or a beleaguered employee—raise a glass to the unsung heroes of the hotel front desk. And maybe, just maybe, to the fiery moms who aren’t afraid to say what everyone else is thinking.
Got your own tale of hotel chaos, or a legendary angry mom in your life? Share your stories below—let’s give the hockey weekend survivors the standing ovation they deserve.
Original Reddit Post: The gloriest hockey evening ever