This weekend I took the boys to a birthday party at a Bainbridge Family Martial Arts. During one of the games (a dodgeball type game with kids in the middle and adults on the outside rolling yoga balls and trying to tag the kids) Carlos was taunting the head instructor. He’s quick and athletic and the instructor wasn’t able to tag him by rolling the ball toward him. When Carlos turned his back, the instructor picked up a large yoga ball, threw it and hit him in the back of the head. Carlos fell forward, hitting his face on the mat. He then came over to me (I was maybe 5 feet away and watched the whole thing) in tears. The instructor was very aware of what he had just done. Carlos was physically ok, but upset that the teacher had broken the rules of the game and made him cry in front of his friends. His pride was definitely bruised. I comforted him and sat out for awhile with him while he gained his composure. When it was time for cake, he didn’t want to go anywhere near the party and instructor and I didn’t force him.
I know I should have said something to the instructor right then, and I have beat myself up over not immediately standing up for my son but I was assuming that he would eventually come over to check on my son or at least say “sorry” to him. That never happened. It left a VERY bad taste in my mouth and not very positive things to say about this dojo.
If you know him, you know Carlos is one tough little kid. He is a yellow belt at Island Aikido and loves working hard. We have been so blessed to have Chris Mills be such a positive mentor for him and this incident shows me just how lucky we are to have our boys training with him.
My question to you is this….is it worth an email to this dojo? Should I let it lie?
It has been a good discussion topic for our family, about how adults can be bullies, too. Hard lesson for a 6 year old to learn.
I’m really struggling with this one!