By Terry Copper, red belt“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today” – Anonymous
Recently, I wrote a testimonial on Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo and its importance to me as a parent. Since then, I have wanted to expand and elaborate on the subject of active involvement in our children’s lives.
Fourteen years ago I earned my masters in counseling. A counseling degree helped fine tune my parenting skills. As I served my time as an intern at different mental health hospitals and while working with varying degrees of mental illness, a theme started to emerge. Many adults are angry about what happened to them in their childhood.
Before my counseling experience, I would have guessed patients were in these facilities due to violent incidents in their lives. This was often not the case. A lot of the patients I worked for were angry about the lack of parental attention during their childhood. They were still looking for that unconditional love from their parents. It was the small things, from childhood, that led these adults down a path of poor choices.
I never wanted to be a spectator in my children’s lives in the first place. I've always wanted to be a participant. My experience with mentally ill patients solidified this desire. Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo and martial arts, in general, are one of the few sports or events where we can work side by side with our children. What a great feeling it is to smile at your child after they break that board for the first time. An even greater feeling is watching your child smile at you when you break your board for the first time.
After years of hard work and lots of sweat, I may be close to getting my MSK Taekwondo black belt at the CTI, but in the eyes of my children I hope they will look back as healthy adults and smile at my “black belt” in parenting. Consider taking that journey with your child. Join MSK Taekwondo at the Colroado Taekwondo Institute and become a memory in their lives tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment