KarateMomma

Just a suggestion, our school does demos for the local elementary and middle school on fair days. You could contact local schools and see if they would be willing to arrange that. I'm not sure if our school charges the schools or not?

exactly right in this one sentence. Sad, but true. (please note though, that not ALL of us parents are selfish. I gave up our winter vacation for sparing gear and I do not regret it in the least. I would do it all again and I am having just as much fun watching my son learn karate as he is learning it himself!! )

From a parent's point of view, I would like to comment on this(I hope noone minds, as this is the 'instructor' section of the forum) There are two different types of parents. Ones that put their kids in karate so they (the parents) have a little spare time in the afternoon, and those of us that actually want our kids to learn the art of it and excel at it. Given I'm always the only parent at my son's class, I assume my group is very very small. You cannot 'talk' a parent into being part of their child's life. Sadly, they have to realize this through the child. I hate to say this, but sadly it is true in our American world these days. Both parents work all day now, and when they get off they want to relax, and just don't have the energy to do karate with their child. I am blessed to be a stay at home mom, so I hope I am not stepping on any toes if I state this wrong. As a society, kids are now being brought up to defend for themselves, and to learn things themselves. There is no "village to raise a child" anymore. It's the child raising themselves. The best thing to do is to keep telling the children to show their parents what they've learned after class.I like to let my son 'teach' my husband what he's learned, and that works pretty well, as then it is practice for my son as well and builds his confidence. And the more the children practice at home, the more the parents will get to see how much this means to their child, and HOPEFULLY will want to be more involved. I honestly, personally, could not imagine not being their for my son, and not seeing the bright smile on his face when his coach tells him that he's doing a good job in class. But some parents just don't see that I guess. It's sad that some just realize too late how important it is to be there for them and support them in this adventure they are on.

I didn't have a mom growing up, so I make sure my kids do.

Thank you all for your advice:) I followed most of the advice to buy it from the center itself, which was a bit more expensive, but at least I got to have him try it on first and knew it would fit. And we got a surprise today also! His head coach sat in on classes last week, and his normal coach agreed- he was promoted to yellow belt today! A month ahead of time o.o They both commented he was the best in the class and felt he was ready to move on ahead of time. So proud of him:) Now he'll be with both yellow and orange belts.

Hi! I am a mom of a white belt(getting his third stripe next week). I am looking for advice on sparring gear, if anyone could help me. He gets to start sparring next month, so I need to order it soon. thanks ahead of time!