Is it okay for kids to hit parents? I just was here at the school. We just wrapped up the leadership class. We have a leadership class, first Friday of every month, where we teach children how to be assistant instructors, how to help out here, how to work on leadership skills. I was just wrapping things up and closing the shop. There’s a sushi place right next door to our school, and there was a kid out there talking to their parents. I don’t know exactly what the interaction was, but partway through the conversation, the kid looked definitely upset, and just went out and hit mom right on the chest and ran away. It really is an interesting interaction. What I do for a living, what we do here, where we teach children how to use their words first, how to use their hands and their feet appropriately for self-defense situations. But for something like that, that’s not okay with me. If I saw a kid here in the school using their hands against their parents, I would absolutely come up and say, hey, we don’t do that kind of thing here, but outside at a business next door, it’s really none of my business, it’s not something I could jump in on. However, there was one particular part of the interaction which I thought was noteworthy, and I definitely like your thoughts on. When that kid hit mom, it was not acknowledged at all. There wasn’t even a beat, it was just a moment, and a mom went on to move on to say, hey, why don’t we go do something else? How are we going to do something better? I got the positive reinforcement part, or at least not diving into the negative, but no acknowledgement at all, that’s a different story. I think that we should make choices with our children or help our children make choices. I think that we should acknowledge those kinds of interactions, and maybe there’s some parent out there that is okay with their kid hitting them, I’m not one of them, and I think that needs to be taken care of right there on the spot. Of course, in a positive way, can we use our words forced or something, but the thing that really struck me about it was that there was no acknowledgement of hitting whatsoever, and for me and what I do for a living, that’s not okay. Just wondering how you parents think that should play out, and whether or not you think it’s okay for your kids to be doing things like that. So just sharing my thoughts here, I’d love to hear from you. If you like the way we think here of respect martial arts, please join us for a free trial class, link below on how to do that. I look forward to seeing you next time, and respect.”
