Lack of Enthusiasm

Not from me, but my eldest daughter. I’m getting increasingly frustrated with the fact that I can’t motivate her to practice at home and she flat out refuses to learn any more moves of her poomsae. More irritating to me is I am in a position where I am sort of held responsible for this, to the point where Grandmaster basically told me to pull her out of class to teach her the next moves. It was a laughable experience because she would rather dig a spork into her eye socket than have her mother show her anything.

I really, really don’t want her to quit (she’s 10 btw), and it doesn’t really make sense anyhow, since she would be with me when I went to class anyway. I definately see where TKD has helped her socially, and the look on her face when she performs well is priceless. Especially her last test where she broke the board on the first try. I have tried flat out avoiding critiquing her or offering suggestions for improvement, or offering them gently and her performance when working with me quickly goes south. She gets sloppy, then when I gently tell her to slow down and breathe before trying again, she will hear nothing of it. She said she’s bored. She also has this attitude that she knows everything already (it’s already starting, *sigh*), even though it’s painfully clear in execution that she doesn’t. I’m not looking for perfection from her. I’m looking more for effort, which at times is completely lacking. I praise her when she is obviously trying to master a kick or a technique, and try not to let her get overly frustrated. She does much better with an instructor, but it’s pretty clear her heart isn’t in it. In fact I wonder if my accelerating has killed her motivation somehow.

I’m of half a mind to let her quit, but then I would get the inevitable questions from the staff. Already my husband has gone from some interest to total ambivalence about TKD and is considering taking a break because it hasn’t been enjoyable for him in quite some time and he keeps getting hurt. I try to keep an attitude at the dojang that I am not my husband’s keeper. What he decides is not my responsibility, but it’s much harder to do that when it’s one of my children.

Any advice for a frustrated mom?

Blue and Brown

Blue: The color of the uniforms that the HVAC workers wear. I’m getting way to familiar with it this weekend. We had a new air conditioning system installed on Thursday along with a humidifier and hot water heater. The were here until midnight Thursday installing everything. They came back yesterday evening to fix a leak with one of the connections of the water heater. Then they were back today to try to sort out why the air isn’t blowing cold inside the house, you know, where it does the most good. They will be back on Monday for what I hope is the last time. Thankfully the weather cooled off today so I may actually sleep comfortably tonight.

Brown: The belt that I just earned today! As usual my performance anxiety cropped up. It’s gotten better now that I know that I can do my board break a week prior to the test. I managed to break it on the first try and not break my toes. That was my biggest concern because it was the first time I had to break using the ball of my foot instead of my heel. Getting my toes out of the way was a priority. My test went well, so well in fact that I was told that my performance improved dramatically from my last test and I was even used as an example on how to execute the poomsae with the proper amount of snap and power. This meant a lot considering it came from one of the other instructors and not Grandmaster, who has seen me at my best. One of the other black belts also made it a point to congratulate me on doing so well with it. My confidence is definately getting better with each test, and I’m trying to curb my perfectionist tendencies. Most people aren’t going to notice a small error as much as I will notice it in my own performance.

Also in the good news category, physical therapy came to an end, my foot has been feeling a lot better and as long as I keep up the exercises and give myself ample time to stretch before tae kwon do, I should be fine. That and my next test is in 2 months instead of just one, and my private lessons go down to once a week. I get a little breathing room before my next test, and just in time too. I was starting to feel like I was at the mercy of my schedule which got a bit hectic.

Grandmaster was kind enough to give me a preview of two new kicks I get to learn in brown belt. The first was a tornado kick, which is a lot of fun, and the other is Ddwieu Duikumchi Ahp Dollyeo Chagi (isn’t that a mouthful?). I’m looking forward to working on both of them.

On a totally unrelated note, we saw WALL-E tonight. Go see it, it’s really cute and touching, along with an interesting social commentary.

I am the Lizard King!

Got this at Skwigg’s. This is frighteningly close to how I feel when I’m over-caffeinated.

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets