By Sensei Serge Sognonvi and Carmen Sognonvi
Originally published at http://www.urbandojo.com/blog

As a martial arts student, your first karate tournament can be nerve-wracking.

But what’s it like for the parent of that student to watch their child step into the ring?

Check out this hilarious blog post by Stephanie Berman, mother to one of our students, in which she shares how she felt watching her son compete at the recent Long Island Open:

I pointed my tiny little baby (OK, OK, quite tough 8-year old) in the direction of his ring, and climbed on shaky legs to the top of the bleachers.

I managed to remain tolerably calm, until the first punch was thrown.

It took every ounce of self-control I possess not to throw myself into the ring, grab the other kid by the pants and hurl him to the mat in an unexpected Mama B Smackdown.

Instead I took a breath.

My son goes to a great karate school, run by wonderful people, who place a real emphasis on encouraging positive character development. He has to complete homework assignments about confidence, perseverence, self-control. He is fit and strong. He is not afraid. And, best of all, he gets to do really cool-looking karate moves that he practices day after day.

So I sat on my hands. Shut my mouth. And tried really, really hard not to pee my pants.

What happened next?

We won’t give away the ending to this story here! Instead, go read the rest of Stephanie’s blog post.

While you’re there, check out the rest of her posts! Her blog is called Money vs. Mommy and is a smart, funny look at the everyday life of being a working mom.

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