Don't call it Taekwondo

Guillermo broke our hearts a few weeks ago when he told us he didn't want to play soccer this fall. At first he said he didn't want to play because his games would interfere with Spider Man on Saturday mornings.  Later, he said it was just too hard. We held our heads high, remembering he is only four and there are still plenty of years for him to train for World Cup 2022. 

But his decision comes at a particularly difficult time for me as a mom because he is driving me CRAZY. He is in preschool two full days a week and on the days that he is home, he only wants to play with friends. Unfortunately, the friends he played with last year are either in kindergarten or have moved or are in preschool more frequently than he is. When no one is around for him to play with, he gets cranky and uninterested in most of my suggestions. My solution was to find a few more scheduled activities to keep him busy during the week. 

He loves play fighting and somehow he and Will started watching Ninja videos. Instantly, we had a solution. Will took him on Saturday to check out a few martial arts schools. I thought Will would pick the gym that offers Ninjutsu because Guillermo insisted he wanted to learn Kung Fu. That gym, however, is 18 minutes away. A much closer one offers Taekwondo and Guillermo choose that one, which makes me only slightly frustrated because when I told him earlier in the week that we were going to sign him up for classes there, be burst into tears and said something about how he would never be my friend again. (Whatever dude, you told me that just yesterday and then five minutes later, you asked me to be R2D2 to your Boba Fett!)

They key, Will told me later, was not to let Guillermo know he is taking Taekwondo. We call it Ninjutsu, and so will all of you! So, starting next week, Guillermo will be taking Ninjutsu lessons at Taekwondo school, got it?