A New Day

Last weekend, my son threw a fit and did not play in his soccer game. Then, during the week, he had an awful session at his karate class where he refused to do many of the activities. (I’ll have more about all that in this week’s Patch column that should be posted tomorrow).

So, this weekend, we had trepidations about those two activities.

On Saturday morning, I spoke to Kai at breakfast and set my expectations for him. I said that I knew he could do a good job at karate because he had done so before. I told him that I wanted him to listen to Sensei and set a good example for the class. I also said that I wanted him to play soccer without complaining. I was positive, but also added that if he did not do the activities nicely, he would lose his computer and video privileges.

As the karate class started, I was tense as I sat in the stands. I didn’t relax even when Kai got off to a good start. He was doing all of the warm-up exercises nicely, but it was early. With Kai, I’ve learned that you never know when he might get upset about something and start acting out.

As the group went on to doing karate, Kai looked very serious. Frankly, I was surprised how well he was doing. His form is often not crisp, but on this day he seemed very focused and his movements were unusually sharp.

Toward the end of class, each student had to perform kata (karate movements) individually in front of the entire class. Kai performed well, and, at the end of the class, earned high praise from Sensei. “Kai, that’s the best karate you’ve ever done.”

One activity down, one more to go.

In the afternoon, we went to his soccer game. Kai played. He ran. He kicked. He did not complain. It was a complete change from the week before.

Later, we heard from the mom of another child at the game. She said that she congratulated Kai for his play and he responded to her, “I always knew I could do it.”

I am not sure why he did so well this week or why he had so much trouble last week. I can only hope that the positive behavior will carry over to school, another area that has been a challenge of late.

It’s a new day. It’s a new week. Hopefully, it is a new beginning.