Lock them up until they're 30!

So my last TKD post prompted some out-of-band questions about what happens when someone does get hurt? Or more specifically, how am I and/or my wife going to react when one of the kids gets injured. It's bound to happen.

There's a part of me that says we can't have our kids living in a protected bubble. However, how do you let go? How do you put aside that parental protection factor?

With any sport, there is bound to be injury of some sort. My kids haven't really had to face that though. My youngest sprained her ankle during dance once but that doesn't have the same nuance as being injured in taekwondo. The difference is getting hurt while playing a sport vs. getting hurt BECAUSE of a sport . Taekwondo (or any martial art) has a competitive nature where you are trying to make points by making contact in a very physical manner with your opponent. This isn't like soccer/basketball/volleyball/pick your non-contact sport. My wife isn't mentally prepared for that and I'm not sure I am either.

We've been dealing with other "letting go" issues as well. My oldest daughter is 11. She has a lot of freedom of where to surf on the internet. Meaning we don't have any restriction software running. Everyone I've tried has been a pain in the butt to use and deal with. A lot of her friends send her all kinds of links that lead to who knows where. This weekend, she was taking one of those online quizzes and one of the options was "cutting yourself". She knows the concept but it is definitely not something we feel she should dwell on.

Another issue, when I was a kid, my mom, my sister and I were cruising along to church and the song Urgent by Foreigner came on. My mom mistook the lyrics to say "Virgin, Virgin, emergency" and quickly changed the radio. It's still all about sex so at least her intentions were good. My daughter has been listening to the song Crank Dat by Souljah Boy. She heard it at a local "Kids Night Out" held at the rec center and also at a school dance. She's been trying to learn the dance that goes with it. I finally went and looked up the lyrics (popups on that link). Note, the version she listens to is censored. Yes, the word "Hoe" is used a lot but I couldn't really tell if it was the slang word for "whore" or just something in the song as in "Hey, Ho". Well, it really is the word Hoe. One of the lines is "Super Man Dat Hoe". A quick look at urbandictionary.com and the song is banned. She has no idea what it means.

I don't want her listening to Turning Japanese either.

What we're really struggling with is giving her freedom yet pointing out things that aren't appropriate and not being over protective. She needs to be able to make these decisions of what's appropriate or not on her own.