This is a great story, with a great ending, with great lessons for everyone. I will share two lessons later. Watch the following video (compliments of NBC News with Mark Potter reporting).
(NBC News)
Lesson Number One: Be Prepared to Protect your children. Our number one priority as parents is to protect our children. Parents, we must do all that we can to stay informed, knowleable and trained to move to action to protect our children. Learn and teach your children the ABC's of Personal Safety (or get a professional help by doing a Google search for Personal Safety in your town).
Lesson Number Two: Don't Panic, Stay Calm. Albeit this Dad is a trained professional soldier with 5 tours of duty in Iraq. However, the lesson here is that we parents MUST do all that we can to be prepared and ready to move to action --and the right action-- to protect our children.
This takes a calm and clear mind. The father stayed calm (by the way he moved the chairs in position to shield his children, the perception could be he did not panic).
This is a learned skill --staying "calm" and not panicking-- which can be acquired through proper training. Training ourselves to remain calm in stressful situations is key. For example, Verbal Self-defense (Verbal Judo) teaches a philosophy of how to stay calm and look creatively at conflict and use specific strategies and tactics to find (peaceful) resolutions.
Martial arts and self-defense programs, or at least the right programs (and teacher) is the key.
For me and my family, it's not an option!
As an education activist and self-defense expert, I highly recommend self-defense and martial arts! For me and my family, it's not an option. Everyone in my household MUST train in martial arts and learn self-defense!
If you do not know of a martial arts school or self-defense program in your community, please contact me at 856-235-0414 (ask for Peter Liciaga!)
Your Mount Laurel Martial Artist,
http://www.peterliciaga.org/
I would also like to recommend all parents come to my free workshop, "Toolbox for Better Parenting", this Saturday June 4th at 2pm in the Shop Rite Shopping Center at Dinoto Karate Family Center 147 Ark Road in Mount Laurel NJ (behind Friendly's & McDonalds).
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect opportunity for parents to see some of the tools that your Mount Laurel martial artist use that are instrumental to the success of your child.
All parents with children that are 4-years old and older are invited. There is no cost for this seminar. When parents come in, we give a little workout, so they can experience what their children experience in a martial arts class. This gives the parent a lot of appreciation and respect for what their child will do in a karate class.
You can call me at 856-235-0414 for more information.