I am a karate teacher and father of four children. My wife is a teacher in the inner city of Los Angeles and a very good mother. We don't claim to have all the answers to discipline and children. But we do seem to have a lot more of them than many that we meet. In this series for English language learners, I thought you may appreciate also discovering our system for discipline. Language learning is all about enjoying the process, so I hope you enjoy this series. There are many stories along with the discussion and hopefully you will learn a little English as well. All of the lessons are excerpts from my book, Yes Sir! A Karate Instructor's Guide To Discipline. You can buy it on Amazon.com but I will be giving much of the book here for free over time. So, enjoy… Now, let me give you the impetus behind taking the time to put this into book form. While standing in the line at the grocery store waiting with our multiple carts, our kids were quietly beside us. The younger two were holding onto the sides of one of our carts, while the other two were looking at all of the temptations laid out for them by the ever so thoughtful store management. The woman behind us seemed to smile from ear to ear at our kids as her two small children commenced a very heated battle involving frozen peas and bags of marshmallows directly behind her.
In between their screams of delight and pain she asked us, “How do you do it?” “Do what?” Jackie replied putting down the magazine she was scanning. “How do you guys get them to act so… well, good?” As she was finishing her last syllable, a candy bar flew over her shoulder and into one of our baskets. I tossed the chocolate back into her basket and delivered my standard response, “It's by design.” Thinking that her comment was simply meant as an observation or maybe a compliment, I turned and began putting our items on the counter. She continued to wait for more to the reply and when none was coming she continued to press.
“No really, I would like to know what it is you are doing?” she said, with even a touch of desperation.
Realizing that she was serious about having us give her a complete course in our parenting methods in the four to five minutes it would take for us to be through the line, Jackie replies, “There really is no quick answer we can give you.” We weren't irritated with her persistence because we knew she was simply desperate. On the ride home we both discussed how impossible it was for any of the advice we could have given her to have actually helped since the context needed for it to work wasn't going to be there. I remember even saying that it would take an entire book to affect the change of thinking most people need to successfully discipline their children. Now a few years and several similar events later, here we are. We sincerely hope you can benefit from the unique perspectives we bring to the table.
All text and audio is copyrighted (2009) by Mathew Booe and no reproduction of any type is permitted without express written consent.
