Better Support Your Child
You want to support your children in their martial art, however, it can be difficult to know exactly what to say. Here are some tips to help.
Being overly negative doesn’t work, you don’t want to counter every positive thing you say with a negative in the same sentence. An example of this would be: “You did well in class today, BUT you could have bent your knees more during that drill.”
It can be equally damaging to say things that are overly positive, such as, “You’re better than everyone out there,” or, “No one in your class is as good as you.” These kinds of statements are very aggrandizing and can lead to a sense of self-importance or even arrogance.
Instead, try some of these healthy statements:
Before class
Have fun.
Play hard.
Work hard
I love you.
After class
Did you have fun?
I am proud of you.
I love you.
Keeping it all very simple, this type of positive encouragement can have a huge impact on how your child performs, as well as reinforcing their positive mindset for whatever activity they are doing. If you do want to complement them go with something along the lines of, “I love watching you do martial arts.” This is not aggrandizing and it keeps all of the negatives out.
Remember it is very important to support your child in whatever their passions may be, but also remember the values they are learning in the martial arts: caring, modesty, humility, hard work, and self-improvement. It’s vitally important to model these through your own actions as a parent.