What if my child wants to quit?

There will come a time when your child says; "I'm too tired to go
to class today." This is a critical point in a child's training.
This is when you help teach them about follow-through and the
never-quit attitude.
Don't be concerned about "pushing it on your child." Children
wouldn't go to school, brush their teeth or clean their room if you
didn't "push it on them." There's a big difference between helping
a child follow through on a goal they agreed to and force-feeding
something on a child.

One good strategy taught by the The Peaceful Warriors' Martial Arts
is to make sure your child is doing something less interesting to
him/her prior to going to martial arts class. For instance, a child
doing homework or chores will usually jump at the chance to leave
that and go to class. On the other hand, a child playing video
games may not want to stop shooting aliens on the screen to go to
class.

When you begin the classes, agree with your child on some
short-term goals such as green belt or red belt with the
understanding that there will be no quitting until the goal is
achieved. The real goal in the training will be black belt, but
until you've had a chance to really understand what it takes to
earn a black belt, it's best to set a more reachable initial goal.
Once you've determined that black belt is your goal, commit to it
with full enthusiasm.
However, it's unrealistic to expect a child not to, at some point,
rebel against the effort. This is natural and is part of the
process of learning. Quitting can quickly become a bad habit.
Facing these types of challenges is part of the training inherent
in the martial arts.

Yours in the arts,





Master Art Mason
Founder: The Peaceful Warriors' Martial Arts Institute