Renzo Gracia and my Daughter.

I’ve been training my daughter in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for about 2 years now.  We started off with the marvelous “Gracie Bullyproof” DVD set and I recently enrolled her at Renzo Gracie Academy in NYC.  Whenever I tell people that I put her in jiu jitsu, their first comment is always, “Does she like it?”.  Whenever you encourage your kid to do something you are passionate about, the assumption is that you’re forcing the child to do something she doesn’t really want to do.

And it’s a rather fine line…trying balance what a child “wants” to do with what she “should” be doing.  My daughter spends an hour a day in Math class.  She doesn’t want to do that.  She spends an additional hour on Saturday in Math tutoring.  She doesn’t want to do that either.  Truth be told, the only thing she really wants to do is ride her bike and watch iCarly.

As her parent I can’t just let her do what she “wants” to do.  I have to encourage her to do what I feel she “should” be doing.  It’s a delicate line to balance at times.  For now at least, she enjoys jiu jitsu – a sport that challenges her both mentally and physically.  It will be a sad day for me when that changes…