How Learning Martial Arts Saved My Four-Year-Old

Fatherhood sometimes requires skills learned during Karate training.

We recently had an incident in our home and as a result of my martial arts training, my four-year-old is safe and still telling the story.

I know you’re thinking, “What could have happened in this man’s own home which required the use of martial arts training? How terrifying!” I’m sure you are imagining great speed and strength which lent itself to me in defending my family.

Well, that’s not the part of my training which I needed that day.

It was self-control.

You see, while I was sitting at my computer one afternoon, minding my own business, our four-year-old came out very excitedly and exclaimed:

“I just flushed the toy down the toilet!”

As it turns out, our two-year-old had gone into the bathroom, which we typically try to keep the door closed to, and had thrown a toy down the toilet. The four-year-old then went and use the bathroom and flushed.

From the moment he came running out to tell on himself until I got the commode fastened back into place was two and a half hours.

Two and a half hours on a Saturday I got to spend snaking the toilet, removing it from its proper place, dislodging the Happy Meal Toy, and getting it to sit back, sealed correctly in its spot.

The fact that the child was not spanked, yelled at, and thrown out on the street is a great testament to how much my studies of Kenpo Karate have seeped into the rest of my life.

The softer side of the sport

When people think of the Martial Arts we tend to imagine ripped guys beating each other black and blue.

We have thoughts of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies or of the TV series Arrow.

However, one thing I’ve always appreciated about learning from my instructor is how he’s taught self-discipline and patience and that the fighting aspect of martial arts should always be a last resort.

In college, he would often have people come up to him and ask him to show them moves in martial arts. They wanted him to work his magic for their own entertainment.

Without fail he would show them the same move.

He’d ask them to extend their hand, and he would do the same. They’d lock hands and he’d shake it while looking at them in the eyes and say, “If you learn this move, you’ll never have to use any other.”

I have always thought that was cool.

A Familiar Lesson

When growing up my parents had always taught me the same sorts of lessons. Humility, self-control, and discipline were valued in our home.

My brothers and I were taught to respect our parents and to be patient with each other (although it didn’t always work out that way).

Now though, I don’t always have my mom and dad right here with me to tap me on the shoulder and give me the look as a gentle reminder with my own children.

I do meet with my instructor regularly though, and with that regular practice, the lessons continue to be instilled in me. It is a constant reminder to live out self-control even when it is challenging.

Like when our third born has flushed a toy down the toilet and ruined a couple hours of my Saturday.