Karate and Discipline

Jaxon's just started karate. Yep, we gave in to the sales pitch and signed him up for a YEAR.

I know it's a long commitment, but he seemed to be doing really well with the teacher. Master Preston (first name Shannon), is a nice man who is good with kids. He focuses on discipline (obeying the first time) and doesn't let Jaxon get away with anything. Because Jaxon is really interested in succeeding, this has been a good approach. We've used this discipline focus at home to help Jaxon realize when he's obeying the first time, and working towards more of that.

Funny story, when Jaxon was a few months old we babysat for Mark's family friend, a professor at BYU. They had six kids and we watched them for the weekend. It was a little stressful for us, what with being new parents and everything (also, I think they paid us $50 or something).

But the craziest part was the militaristic style of parenting these kids were raised with. They would repeat as a group, like the Von Trapps, "WE OBEY THE FIRST TIME, EVERY TIME, ALL THE TIME." It was a little creepy and Mark and I decided that we didn't want our kids to be raised like that.

Well, here we are six years later. My kids are climbing the walls, getting written up at the gym (yep, it's the one-year-old), and pretty much NEVER listening to their parents.

What I wouldn't give for a little bit of the Von Trapp family now . . .