Martial Arts and Parenting

My life circumstances are about to change in July… my girlfriend and I will be bringing a new life into the world!
Well, truthfully, she’ll be doing all the hard work regarding our little boys immigration (or would that be emigration?), and is already experiencing the changes.
We’re expecting a baby boy, and so far everything has been good.  All of the ultrasounds and other tests have been positive, and the boy appears to be in good health and development!  We’re both very happy to hear that, and are very excited… and admittedly a little nervous!

So, in addition to the rest of this site, I thought that I would add a sidebar to the topics – that of Martial Arts and Parenting.  Admittedly a strange conceptual combination… but, hey, stranger things have happened.

Now, I will admit that I won’t have much to talk about in the actual practice of parenting right off the start, and really not much until later anyway.  My intent for this sidebar is rather simple – to apply my studies in both Martial Arts as well as Sociology to the preparation for, and later raising of, our son in July.
This means that I will be talking about different parenting theories on an academic basis and possibly connecting different classic philosophical approaches to them… which sounds all well and good, but I know that I’ll probably completely reverse my academic review after trying some practical application.

“But what about the Martial Arts part?” you ask… And I’m glad that you did!  It may sound like a stretch, but I think that Martial Arts can be a very powerful tool in the child-rearing arena – with benefits ranging from maintaining your own sanity to later using training as father/son bonding time… and so much more in between!  Even if someone isn’t a martial artist, the conceptual foundations for many of the things are essentially universal, I am sure – good “Kung Fu” exists in everything, after all…

So, that is what I’ll be talking about in this section – We’ll explore modern child psychology and parenting theories; comparing/contrasting classic practices, philosophical approaches and techniques; and illustrating a modern Budo stance into the whole conversation!  Heck, I may even illustrate training techniques to do while carrying out fatherly duties!  (And yes, I did have the really cheesy “Dad” type snicker after I wrote that…)

I’m looking forward to both this outlet and the upcoming discussions, almost as much as I am looking forward to meeting our son in July.

 

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