One of the hardest things about being a parent is knowing when to step in and when to let your kid struggle.
Because your instinct is to protect them.
You don't want your kid to hurt.
You don't want them embarrassed.
You don't want them to lose.
You don't want somebody to be better than them.
You don't want to see them frustrated.
But I'm starting to believe that if we remove every difficult experience from our children's lives, we're not actually helping them.
Because eventually they're going to experience hardship when we're not there.
So I'd rather give my kids opportunities to experience controlled hardship now.
That's one of the reasons I believe martial arts can be so valuable for children.
Your child is going to lose.
They're going to get tired.
Somebody will know more than them.
They'll struggle to learn something.
They'll get frustrated.
They'll sometimes want to quit.
But they're doing it inside a controlled environment with coaches, parents, training partners, and rules.
They're learning how to solve problems while the consequences are still small.
I think there's an important difference between fear and danger.
I'm going to protect my kids from danger.
That's my job.
But I don't necessarily need to protect them from every scary feeling.
Sometimes the best thing I can do is stand nearby and let them work through it.
Let them fail.
Let them try again.
Let them discover that they can handle it.
As parents we can't always fight every battle for our children.
At some point they need to learn that they're capable of fighting their own.