One Life Lesson Learned

A few weeks ago my daughter learned one of life's hardest lessons, and of course, she learned it the hard way. We have both been taking taekwondo for the past two years. She started before me, and I later joined for fitness, fun, and to learn some self protection techniques. For the first year, she was always a belt ahead of me and very proud of that fact. When the teacher suggest I hold her back so we could stay in the same class, I couldn't do it, who am I to stop her dream for convenience?

Then came January, and she wasn't ready to practice or to test by herself, so I tested on my own and we were at the same belt level. She was okay with that, and honestly I was too, because it was easier to help her - I actually knew the moves and didn't have to read them off a paper, not knowing what the heck they were.

But now we have come full circle. No matter how many times I told her or how much I tried to help her, she just wouldn't practice. I wasn't to upset because we have approached the "BIG BELT". In other words the testing for our red-black belt. For those of you who don't know about Taekwondo, the red-black belt means you're a black belt in training. To achieve the jump from red-black to black, you have six months to pass or you will drop back down to red belt. The whole catch on moving up is that you have to remember everything you have learned before. And of course, not even I remember of all that, so how should I expect an eight year old to? Plus I knew she needed some work on her board breaking.

I hemmed and hawed about whether I should test. I hadn't done much board breaking for awhile either, and would she be really upset for me? I could see it happening since she hadn't practiced. However, come the fateful day, with the shove of my teacher, I tested, and I ....... passed.

My daughter took it well at first. She patted me on the back as they gave me the belt. But after class came the melt down. She wanted nothing to do with this new red black belt around my waist. She was beyond upset and I was afraid she was ready to quit. I knew it could do one of two things: Make her quit or make her start practicing.

I'm still wondering, for some days have been better then others since the "red-black day" but I hope she will snap out of it. I have tried to encourage her by reminding her that there is nobody her age that has stuck with it this long, and there are no black belts in our class that are even close to her age. I'm not sure what else to do, but remind her that I hate it when I don't practice either. So please parents, watch out for those life lessons, cause you want to cry along with them, even when you know it's all for the good.