PLEASE STOP Telling Your Kids “Hit Back” As An Initial Response
It causes a lot more problems and headaches, especially when we don’t take the time to assess what led to the hitting and fighting in the first place.
This is counter-intuitive to say this, especially coming from one who trains in and teaches the martial arts, seriously, please stop telling your children to “hit them back.” I say this from my recent personal experience as a martial arts teacher and participating in the dojo’s summer camp program. The past two years have mentally taxing on me because of problems beyond my control, which includes having to constantly “maintain the peace” because the students are not able to, probably will never, get along with each other.
In a profession where one of our objectives is to enforce discipline, the parents are NOT doing us any favors. That means constantly breaking up fights and anticipating if & when a couple of kids are about to get into a fight.
Why does the hitting start?
Usually, one or two kids will do or say something that will trigger some other kid, the triggered kid, unable to exercise self-control of their emotions, who responds with some sort of aggressive force and ends up throwing the first hit.