Children and Teen’s Kickboxing Tournament
It was 6:00 pm on a Wednesday and the kickboxing tournament that featured a family friend’s son, a teenager that had been in MMA since he was 5, was starting in an hour. I was already mentally and physically drained from working a full day at the office and considered not even attending. I mentioned this to my sister, the mother of my beloved blue-eyed big-hearted niece Maliah, and she too was debating on whether or not to go. Then she said something that sort of caught me off guard - "You know, kickboxing is so violent. Why anyone would put their kids in that sport is beyond me. I bet their kids are hard to handle.” This never occurred to me. I don’t have kids myself and I just never thought about it. I snapped out of my own head and asked, “So do you want to go? We told her we would.” She nodded her head and announced, "Yeah, we definitely need to go. I’m just not going to bring Maliah." She went to the closet to grab …show more content…
About half way to the food stand, a small button-nosed kid with dark hair and big brown eyes wasn’t paying attention and ran right into a middle aged woman that was crouched down, taking a picture of another button-nosed kid posing in front of a poster. I watched as the tiny kid helped her up an apologized profusely. As I looked around, I started to see a pattern with the teenagers and kids that were packed into this building. Watching them interact with each other and the adults, the majority of the kids here were incredibly well mannered and respectful. More so than I’m used to seeing in kids that I know. My sister snuck up behind me and told me to look over towards the restrooms. Two children, a boy that looked about 10 and a girl that looked about the same, were helping each other reach the water fountain. I couldn’t help but feel warm inside at how sweet these kids
It was 6:00 pm on a Wednesday and the kickboxing tournament that featured a family friend’s son, a teenager that had been in MMA since he was 5, was starting in an hour. I was already mentally and physically drained from working a full day at the office and considered not even attending. I mentioned this to my sister, the mother of my beloved blue-eyed big-hearted niece Maliah, and she too was debating on whether or not to go. Then she said something that sort of caught me off guard - "You know, kickboxing is so violent. Why anyone would put their kids in that sport is beyond me. I bet their kids are hard to handle.” This never occurred to me. I don’t have kids myself and I just never thought about it. I snapped out of my own head and asked, “So do you want to go? We told her we would.” She nodded her head and announced, "Yeah, we definitely need to go. I’m just not going to bring Maliah." She went to the closet to grab …show more content…
About half way to the food stand, a small button-nosed kid with dark hair and big brown eyes wasn’t paying attention and ran right into a middle aged woman that was crouched down, taking a picture of another button-nosed kid posing in front of a poster. I watched as the tiny kid helped her up an apologized profusely. As I looked around, I started to see a pattern with the teenagers and kids that were packed into this building. Watching them interact with each other and the adults, the majority of the kids here were incredibly well mannered and respectful. More so than I’m used to seeing in kids that I know. My sister snuck up behind me and told me to look over towards the restrooms. Two children, a boy that looked about 10 and a girl that looked about the same, were helping each other reach the water fountain. I couldn’t help but feel warm inside at how sweet these kids