This is Wayne's World

We’ve all had. “You don’t punch other people’ and ‘You don’t kick people’. Myself and my Queen preach this to my daughter too.

But…
The other day at playgroup my daughter was shoved by another (evil) child because Miss Evil (we’ll call her) wanted the toy my daughter was playing with. So my daughter shoved her back. Then she was hit so my daughter hit her back. Then my Queen clocked this and broke up the 2 year old scuffle. When I was told this story I was glad in the respect that she shows signs of fight in her. That she’ll stand her ground. But I am worried that she may adopt an ‘Its OK to fight’ attitude.

Now…
I allow her to play Wii Boxing and she knows what a punch is and how to throw one (kind of) all-be-it at the TV. She understands she is trying to knock down her opponent and cheers when they go down. And she’s all ‘Oh no!’ when she goes down.

But I know even this is thin ice I’m treading on. She is too young to understand but not too young to learn. And its what she’s learning that is important here. She has already picked up on the basics of competition and fighting. Hit them and they go down…..Get hit and you go down. Winners and losers. So its now a question of how she uses this knowledge. How I help her understand.

Avoiding the subject with anything is a mistake I feel. Thats what happened to me and as a young boy I wasn’t ready to fight and avoided all confrontation due to fear. Until my teens that is, when I learnt Martial Arts and continued this right into my 20′s. I studied and learnt about Eastern philosophies regarding fighting and more importantly….Not fighting. Now I’m considered a man and fighting is a silly immature option no-one really needs but facing confrontation should be met using the same confidence I learnt doing Martial Arts and dealt with adopting the same philosophies.

So today she (my daughter) wanted to play Wii Boxing but we at someone else’s house and had no Wii to hand. She was throwing punches and getting giddy. So I let her punch my hands. And even turned it into a game…..Taking turns and falling down….. You get the idea.
So I’ve now made my stance. The subject is no longer unavoidable. We play punching games and if I’m careful she’ll learn self control, build positive confidence and know fighting is bad but not to be scared of.

If I’m wrong however, then I’ve got a child that goes out and gets into fights to let off steam and is rude and troublesome.

I’m hope I’m not wrong!