Well, my son is now six years old. I have been practicing martial arts (karate and aikido) now for over 25 years of my life. My son has expressed an interest in taking karate. I was very careful not to try "force" him into it. In fact, I even made him ask several times. After about the 5th or 6th time asking me about it, I finally bought him a gi. We start classes tonight.
When we first started talking about karate, I was trying to figure out which class to take him to. My instructor was teaching in Paulding county. His class is about 45 mins from my house. Another instructor in the same organization was teaching much closer. When I explained this to my six year old, his anwser was lucid and decisive: "Daddy, Uncle Stan taught you karate. I want Uncle Stan to teach me karate." For me, that was the end of the debate. There was nothing against the other class, it was just that simple. He wanted his father's instructor.
During the classes, I have already made up my mind not to try and take a very active role in teaching my son. Though I think I would do a good job, I would like to keep the Daddy/Son relationship the way it is and let him have the Sensei/Student relationship with a good instructor, other than me.
The long and short of this post is that when my wife and I decided to have children, many asked me if my kids would participate in martial arts study. My reply then was the same as today. I said that they would participate only if they wanted to. I would require that it be their idea, not mine. Of course, they would influnced by the fact that it was a very important part of my life but that can't be helped, now can it. :)
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