Heading for a Fight

I confess that sometimes the parental tax service gets so busy that we run from one thing to another without necessarily thinking what we are doing through: ballet, swimming, drama, piano, soccer, netball - of yeah and school - it never-ending. So a few Saturdays ago when I looked on the calendar and saw that a Tae Kwon Do tourament was next on th elist, I was more worried about whether the dobok (the TKD uniform) was clean and how we would fit this new activity around winter sports - than whe we were actually letting our children in for. When we arrived, boy-child boldly announced, 'My fight is at 4.30" "Fight? What fight?" I said, momentarily distracted by a nearby shopping mall. I proudly watrch girl-child in patterns ansd thought what a lovely extra curricular activity this was. But when I saw me wee son being kitted out in helmet and body padding, I started to break out in a cold sweat. My anxiety levels then excalated off the scale watching one of his little school mates kicking the living daylights out os some stranger on an over-sized mat. The fight was stopped momentarily while one of the wee boys wiped his tears and gained composure. Mothers were weeping silently and father were grinning proudly. This was surely not happerning. But there he was - boy-child, one the mat, psyched to the max. The buzzer went and the fight began. I cannot explain what I felt at that moment, but a cvoice inside my head kept saying ' this jext ain't natural. I'm supposed to be a nurturing mother and yet here I am supporting my son in a scrap." I decided to cheer for him to distract myself. 'Kick him Zandie - kick him." I called, then recoiled in horror. " OMG, what am I doing?" My sweet little boy won his fight and there was back-slapping and hand-shaking all round. Well - from the blokes anyway. The women gave each other sympathetic looks and half-hugs as we wondered how we had meandered into this foreign land. Lgic says TKD is a fantastic sport for discipline, strength, self-discovery and, of course, self-protection. Logic is, of course, correct, but logic doesn't always work for emotional mothers. The kids love it; they'll keep doing it with my full support. But next time there's a tournament I'll be coweing in the toilets - or even better - heading for the shopping mall.