Saturday, October 11, 2008

Sparring

This week Sunshine was moved up to the next Tae Kwon Do class. It was time and she and I had been talking about moving up, maybe going and watching a class or two so she could get a feel for it. It is the same instructors but the class moves much faster and is just a bit more intense. From a Mom's perspective I could see if she didn't move up she would start to stagnate, wouldn't learn as much. But at the same time, the class includes older kids with green and blue belts- so I understood why she was hesitant.

Anyway, she moved up this week and had a smile on her face the WHOLE time. I sat back and watched the grin and my heart sang. They ran laps and she smiled. They did drills and she smiled. And then they did sparring.

Since she doesn't have sparring equipment yet they had flags they had to pull from each other's belts.. but she smiled the whole time. The whole time! She did get to watch the other kids spar in their sparring gear so she could see what it was like.

After class I asked her, do you want to spar? And she said "Oh Yes!"

And so, I am buying my gorgeous little daughter sparring gear. Somehow I always thought it would be hockey gear and I'd want to jump off the bench and hurt anyone who touched my little baby.. but no, we're skipping that and going right to hand to hand combat.

She loves it and I see her smile and so I can wrap my brain around it... but my heart... is conflicted... it sings at watching her enjoy it and skips a beat when I realize what she is doing.

I suppose just another one of those challenges we face as parents... the letting go and the holding on and finding that balance. But if you read about a woman from the stands at some Tae Kwon Do match taking out a kid.. send bail money... it is probably just me!

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