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Support Without Rescuing – How Parents Build Strong, Capable Kids! with Chief Master Greg Moody and Senior Master Laura Sanborn

Support Without Rescuing –

How Parents Build Strong, Capable Kids!

Every parent wants to help their child succeed. The challenge is knowing when helping becomes rescuing.

In this episode, Chief Master Greg Moody, Ph.D., founder of KarateBuilt Martial Arts and a licensed psychotherapist at Integrated Mental Health Associates, joins Senior Master Laura Sanborn to discuss one of the most important parenting skills of all: supporting children without removing the very challenges they need to grow.

The conversation explores how parental responsibility changes as children mature, why helicopter parenting often produces the opposite of its intended result, and how healthy boundaries help children develop confidence, independence, and resilience. Through real-life examples from martial arts classes, school situations, and family experiences, Greg and Laura explain why strong kids are built through challenge—not protection from every difficulty.

Topics covered include:

  • Why parental authority and responsibility naturally change as children grow
  • The hidden costs of helicopter parenting and constant intervention
  • How rescuing children prevents confidence, focus, and independence from developing
  • Why parents shouting instructions from the sidelines often undermine learning
  • The concept of “independence with safety” as a parenting framework
  • How allowing children to prepare, struggle, and sometimes fail builds long-term success
  • The difference between rules, boundaries, consequences, and punishment
  • Why natural consequences teach responsibility more effectively than punishment
  • The three critical elements of effective boundaries: setting, holding, and tolerating
  • How parents accidentally teach dependence by over-managing homework, activities, and responsibilities
  • Why meaningful skills such as martial arts, swimming, and language learning require parental commitment through periods of resistance
  • The powerful story of a student with significant physical challenges whose growth exceeded expectations because her parents refused to limit her potential
  • Why tolerating a child’s frustration is often an act of love rather than neglect
  • How less rescuing creates stronger children and significantly less stress for parents

This episode is for parents, grandparents, educators, therapists, coaches, and martial arts instructors who want to help children become capable, confident, and resilient. It is especially valuable for parents struggling with the balance between protecting their children and preparing them for the real world.

For more information visit KarateBuilt.com and DrGregMoody.com.

To learn more, visit KarateBuilt.com and DrGregMoody.com.

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Sincerely,

Karate

 

 

 

Ch. Master Greg Moody, Ph.D.

P.S. Transcript: Support Without Rescuing – How Parents Build Strong, Capable Kids! with Chief Master Greg Moody and Senior Master Laura Sanborn

Chief Master Greg Moody | 00:00
Master Sanborn.
Hello, ma’am. You are muted.
You got your karate belt singing on there.
I renamed you.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 00:47
Thank you. That is nice.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 00:49
Move down a little bit, if you don’t mind, because you’re kind of like cut off. There you go. You don’t have your superstar.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 00:59
I was on the wrong day altogether, so it wasn’t my…
Chief Master Greg Moody | 01:02
No problem. I don’t know if Mr. Lees is joining us.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 01:06
He was not there this morning, so I don’t know where they are.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 01:11
Okay, did you get to look at…? Did you get to ask Ginger any questions?
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 01:19
No, I have not even looked at that yet. Because I was doing my phone calls today.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 01:23
No problem, that totally… Yeah, totally, when you get around to it. But you can ask for stuff so you get access to my personal stuff, you and Sarah, everybody else. I had to fix it because I gave that to the consulting clients. I’m like, “Wait a minute. They could ask for my schedule over the next two weeks.” So you could do stuff like that. Ask for “What’s my travel schedule?”
You could ask for stuff that there’s a list of things in the email that you can ask for just some ideas, but you can ask for anything you want. So it basically is supposed to be my assistant. I might even be able to have it possibly even answer the phone.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 02:03
Wow. Yeah, no, I glanced at it, but then I really wanted to get on my phone calls today. So I didn’t mess.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 02:11
No problem, let’s get moving on that.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 02:12
So…
Chief Master Greg Moody | 02:13
Let me add my iPad, and we’ll make this efficient.
All when I keep having problems with zoom on…
When I share and add my iPad, I’ve had such good success using my marker on it.
But it seems to… I don’t know if they changed something or whatever. So it…
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 03:04
Every other week.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 03:05
Yeah, every week they got a damn change in the zoom thing. It’s like, “How are we supposed to keep up with it?” So, all right, so I will start and here’s the…
I’ll just show you the slides quick. I’ve got Charter. Then I’ve got lives. This parental authority one. That’s from the article. We’ll talk about… Well, we did this last time when they’re adults and now we’re talking about when they’re in these stages, we can review that and then we’ll go to what boundaries actually are.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 03:42
Okay.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 03:48
So when you set a boundary, you’re helping a kid, you’re supporting a kid without rescuing them. So the myth is that… Soul talk, we’ll talk about these and then we’ll talk about setting. I want to use the word gate. I don’t know. Why the…? Sounds kind of crap.
Okay, I’m rescued. Were that…
Back to…
Where is the share thing on zoom all went away?
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 04:56
Yeah. Mine. Sew. Is the button on the bottom.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 05:00
Yeah, went on… Yeah, no, I mean…
But I’m not sharing the screen to… What I’m saying is I want zoom, but the bar that says share…
Okay, I want to make you host and then… Well, I can’t make you host because I have no meeting controls.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 05:49
That’s just weird.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 05:50
Yeah, in that weird window front zoom, meaning… Okay, there we go. I got it back. That’s strange. Okay, share area. All right, hook, I don’t know what I did, which is not good that I don’t know what I did.
Okay, so we’ll get started. Put the controls over here. 321. Thanks a lot for being here, everybody. This is our success training, and today we’re going to talk about how parents can support their kids and not rescue their kids.
So this builds strong, capable kids. I’m pleased to have Senior Master Sam Burn with me today. Mr. Fleet might be joining us a little later. Thank you for being here, ma’am. All right, so let’s talk again about what this topic is. This follows up on our topic from last time, which was when we had adult kids and how to set boundaries. Everything we do goes around our charter, a highly disciplined martial arts school.
That’s going to tie into what we do today, but it’s going to tie into the concept of constant growth. If we rescue our kids all the time, then they’re not going to get a… Don’t have a way to grow.
So just like trees, strong trees are going to grow strong because they have some wind and some things fighting them and some conflict. If you grow a tree in a perfectly safe environment, it doesn’t grow very strong, and that’s how kids are.
So let’s talk about what we talked about last time. Senior Master, you can add on to this about the idea that as kids get older, our ability to control their behavior goes down, which is what we call authority.
Our ability in our… Not our ability, but our responsibility goes down. When they’re infants, we’ve got to take care of everything there. We got to take care of feeding them or they die. I mean, they literally… Everything in their life is up to us.
So we have ultimate responsibility, but we have ultimate authority because we can pick them up and push them where we want to go and give them food when it’s ready. In all that, they don’t really control much. They control a little bit because we have to change their diapers when they poop their diapers.
But pretty much everything they do is under our control. And then as time goes on and they become adults, we have very little control. We often feel like we have a lot more responsibility. I think the responsibility curve, how we feel probably goes like this: we feel responsible for them as adults,
but really the responsibilities are down here. But we’re going to talk today about this middle area from child and adolescent where we do have a lot of responsibility, and we still have a lot of authority.
When we talk about the common term as helicopter parents, where parents cover, they take care of everything.
They hover over their kids, and if something goes wrong, they take care of it or they help them.
If their kids are having a little bit of a challenge, they try to fix the challenge and they try to resolve it for them. That’s a mistaken understanding. We still have authority, but our responsibility is less as they get older. Our responsibility to do everything…
We actually have a responsibility to make sure they are challenged, and that they do get to the edge of failure, and they do get to these growth boundaries that they won’t get to if they don’t have to figure stuff out on their own,
deal with things that are problems, senior master, do you want to expand on that or what you’ve noticed with parents that maybe don’t do that? That they take care of everything? Form versus parents that allow their kids to have some challenges.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 10:15
What that brought up to me is even in class, where we’ve got the parent waiting area, the parents are totally separate from the kids. It’s not like they’re standing next to… They’re not invited to help their kid in any way while we’re doing class, but they’re yelling out, “Kick higher” or “Do something” that as the instructors, we’re going to fix that. We’re going to take care of it.
So there’s already somebody in charge of that behavior, but they can’t resist from all the way across the room yelling out something that just throws the kid off because they don’t know who to watch that.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 10:44
Hey.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 10:54
So it’s the opposite of helping their kids, confusing the child. Where do I look? Who do I pay attention to? Who am I supposed to learn from? Mom and Dad, they’re the all-in-all, the end-all-be-all. They’re the ones in control of my life.
But they put me in here to learn from this person. But now they want to do the teaching themselves.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 11:15
Part of the challenge or part of the growth process for a child is to learn from somebody else and to be able to pay attention and focus. Which is ironically why a lot of parents bring their kids to us because they want them to pay attention and focus.
That’s one of the major things that we have parents, one out of our program, and yet when they’re in class and they’re maybe… They’re not paying attention. Great. But it’s our job. We’re going to take care of that for them, and in the same process, the child will learn about paying attention and the learn who to focus on and their own parents. Sounds a little harsh, but parents are almost stealing that kid’s capacity from their kid.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 11:56
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 11:57
They’re stealing the opportunity for their kid to develop and grow and learn to be challenged in that way, even if it’s the paying attention way. Would you say what are some parents that you’ve noticed let their kid have a lot of leeway? I can think of a couple of examples, but your kid does stuff and actually fails.
Support them when needed, but allow them to have some boundaries that are going to be more healthy.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 12:31
Yeah, testing or something is coming up and they’re like, “Hey, you’re responsible for this, you’re supposed to be practicing, you were in charge of learning this. You should have asked for help if you needed help.”
They just let it happen. It’s the ones that are like, “My gosh, are they going to be ready? What do we have to do to get them ready? They’re asking… Rather than having their child take the responsibility of being where they need to be in regards to what’s going on…
So the ones that just let them fail… They get to that point, they’re like, “Hey, what do you have to do now?” They’re looking at the kid, asking the kid. They’re not even asking me, which is great, they’re asking their kid. “You’re supposed to be testing, what do you have to do to be ready?”
Chief Master Greg Moody | 13:18
No.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 13:18
Do you know what the requirements are? I do. I’m the baron.
I’ve read all the paperwork, I’ve got the book, I’ve looked at the poster, I’ve watched your class. I know exactly what you’re supposed to know. Do you know what you’re going to do about it?
Chief Master Greg Moody | 13:32
That can be when the child’s three or four years old, too.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 13:37
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 13:38
Imagine your kid can figure that out or you support them in figuring that out when they’re three and four and how powerful they’re going to be when they’re an adult. One thing I was thinking about, as you said, is the responsibility line.
In the type of responsibility changes over here, your responsibility is genuinely to do the things for them. You’ve got to change their diapers. You’ve got to… Help them get in the car. You’ve got to…
But pretty soon after that, what if they got in the car, figured out how to climb into the car themselves? So it’s still my responsibility. I’m still there in case they fall, in case they move.
But if I can get them to do that themselves sooner, then they’re learning that they’re capable of that. They might be capable of something else. They might be capable of something else.
These things build. So we have a different kind of responsibility. There’s a shift from responsibility to do everything to responsibility to really not do as much as necessary.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 14:53
I thought of it as independence with safety. They have those responsibilities, they can do those things. My job as a parent at that age is to oversee it, make sure everything’s safe. Make sure there’s not something dangerous happening. Is the same… Have I taught them well enough to make… They got to get in a car seat. Is the car seat properly safe?
Is it tight enough? Do they have to make breakfast? Do they need a butter knife or are they going for a butcher knife because that’s the cool looking one? My job as a parent is to say, “Yeah, this is the one to spread your butter with.” That one. Fix your sandwich because you know how to do it.
So it’s independence but independence was safety.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 15:40
Yeah, that’s a wonderful way to say it. I love that. It’s not our job to give them the choice of the steak knife and the butter knife and then see if they’re going to cut themselves. That wouldn’t make sense, right? Nobody would do that, but I think we often fall on the other side where I better take care of it.
I understand why we do this. I think people are very critical of parents nowadays. But if you think about this graph over here, that’s why I like this concept over here. You really did have to do everything for them.
So it’s hard to get out of that habit. When we talked about it last time, we talked about as adults, where somebody has a 25-year-old kid and they’re still living at home and they haven’t gone to college, they don’t have a job, they don’t have something, and at some point the parent allowed that.
But then they’re frustrated that their child isn’t doing anything, and they think they’ve got to change things. But you’re in a different phase, but I feel like if I feel like I’ve got to take responsibility to take care of stuff for them and that feeling doesn’t change, then you’re in a tough space. You’re not realizing what you need to do because you thought responsibility from back here, which was to do everything for him, is the same as responsibility here, which is to do just enough and support them, which for here is to… As adolescence, it’s even less that you have to do. They may get their own books at school, they may take care of their own homework. They don’t need to be reminded about stuff, and then so on.
So it changes. We still have a responsibility, but the form of the responsibility changes in this intermediate time. I think I was thinking of another example. Master Sanborn, I think, was thinking of Miss Lanet, our famous Miss Lanet, who’s getting a black belt.
She’s one of my favorite people in the world.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 17:40
So close.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 17:44
She came in with a lot of challenges, physical challenges. How did her parents respond to coming in with these big physical challenges and then let her succeed or fail?
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 18:00
They just sat back and watched. From the very beginning, they did not give me limitations even on what she could do.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 18:09
Hey.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 18:10
They didn’t say, “Okay, now she’s not going to be able to do this because of that.” She’s not going to be able to do this because of that. I had no limitations on what I could teach her and what I could ask of her.
But there were lots of conversations with them about, “Okay, is surgery coming up? Is this going to happen?” But they were… I mean, they were just thrilled to just watch and let us lead her onto new things to the point where she is now doing things that I didn’t think she could do and now she’s not allowed to get away with anything because she was pushing that limit a little bit.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 18:49
Well, I think when kids have challenges and all kids have challenges, but this was very severe, potentially life-threatening challenges.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 18:49
But…
Chief Master Greg Moody | 18:58
Her parents instead of going, “Well, we better protect…”
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 18:58
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 19:01
Of course, we have a job to protect, but that protection is limited. Instead of protecting where they didn’t need to, they let her grow.
Yeah, and my example… That’s when my son was… I was in martial arts for 20 years before my son was born, and then he was born, and he was diagnosed with autism.
Of course, you know the story. But for the people listening, when he was three, we started kids at three. When he was three, I thought, “Well, gee, he’s got this challenge. Should I start him in martial arts? Would that be a good idea to start him in martial arts?”
I hesitated. Even the one that owns the school and has been the instructor and said all these things about kids. I thought, “Well, what? I’m a hypocrite if I don’t put him in classes now. He couldn’t even speak until he was around four years old.”
I always say the firsts he learned were “Hi, ya.” That’s largely true. So I even was challenged with that. But I had to make a very uncomfortable decision that I was going to risk him failing. Risk maybe looking bad, even risk me looking bad because it’s my kid, and he’s in the class, and I’m going to be showing off.
So let’s talk about how to deal with this and how to know the difference between helping them with independence and still being careful with their safety. So I think this is a good starting point.
So let’s talk about boundaries, because really when we talk about rules, I think understanding the boundaries we have is a different framework for that allows us to support our kids and not rescue them.
So what are the boundaries? So a myth about a boundary is that I’m setting a rule or doing something to try to change their behavior. So in other words, sometimes you do have a rule where they’re not allowed to eat cookies before dinner.
That’s the rule. Now they might sneak a cookie that may not change their behavior. They might do something that you didn’t expect to have happened. Then boundaries include tolerating the problems with it and maybe the consequences of having to deal with it.
So the reality of that, even setting that rule, is letting them know they can’t have cookies before dinner, making sure there’s a clear statement, and rules are going to be more strict when they’re younger, and as they get older, the rules have to be more in terms of what your availability is, what you’re willing to do when they can drive the car, and when they can do stuff.
Then if they don’t follow those rules, you know what’s going to happen. So with younger kids, I think one of the reasons that we have challenges when they get older is because we set up rules.
Instead of just what our behavior is going to be, here’s what we are. This is what we’re going to do in the house. We’re going to help you with this much. We’re going to pay for this. We’re going to do this, and then you’ve got to deal with it yourself, whatever happens.
If you don’t do this, this is what happens. If you do, this is what happens. But a rule is more like a black and white thing that we don’t give them any leeway to have any choice or fail. So that’s maybe the difference in helping people with the difference in responsibility when they’re young is I’m doing everything for a… Responsibility when they get older is some rules that are set up and what they have to follow.
Responsibility when they get older as a parent is to set up some boundaries that they need to follow. If they don’t follow them there, there are some natural consequences because that’s how real life works.
So it’s about supporting them but not fixing the problems for them. Not on one hand fixing things for them before it becomes a problem on another. And wait till they fail and then punish. They’re learning that the consequences of not following the boundaries or not doing the thing that they’re doing. Or, you know, if they’re in karate and they don’t. You mentioned testing.
If they don’t do well at testing and they kind of feel bad because they didn’t do well, okay, are they going to do something good about it, or is that how they’re going to be okay with? And having them deal with that consequence.
And for all of us, that’s what real life is in real life. You know, maybe you don’t do well and you don’t feel good about it, so you’re going to do something about it, or are you going to? Maybe you need to accept that, or maybe not. What are you going to do? How are you going to change things?
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 23:53
It’s teaching them to make decisions for themselves.
Whether they decided to do the thing they were supposed to and everything went fine, or they decided not to do the thing they were supposed to…
There are consequences. Or they decided to do something completely wrong, and again, there are consequences. It teaches them that. All right, I made the decision to do this, therefore this happened. I decided to do this, therefore this happened.
Okay, so now we have to decide and help them figure out what could have been a better way to go about it. Obviously, I wanted you to do exactly what I wanted you to do. You opted against that. Here are your consequences.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 24:43
Well, and it’s not even… What you’re talking about is consequences that they experience based on what they did. So they did something or didn’t do something.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 24:49
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 24:50
If it was… Let’s say they’re in elementary school or junior high and they’re supposed to do homework and they didn’t do the homework, right?
So it is our responsibility to remind them to do the homework 15 times. Or help them and do the homework with them. Or is it to see to let them know that our expectation is that you schedule time to do your homework and you’re not going to… Not go to dinner, not make it to dinner, not do a family activity because you’re busy doing homework unless you gave us prior notice.
So is that expectation that they have to do their homework and manage their time? Well, the expectation is yes. Some kids need some help getting to that point, but if that’s the expectation, then the consequence of them not following it is what?
Well, they didn’t do well in school. They got a bad grade, okay? Can we as parents tolerate that they got a bad grade so that they learn about the consequences of their actions? That’s what responsibility is, consequences of my actions. Responsibility isn’t…
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 25:50
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 25:51
My parent told me to do it, and I got reminded forty-five times, and then I did it.
Then we’re not teaching the kids the right messages. If that’s the case, I would push back a little bit on the idea that they’re always going to make choices. I think when kids are younger, into their teens, and even up until they’re eighteen, some of the choices we need to make for them. We talk to parents all the time about if they say, “Well, I want to see if my kid wants to do this or wants to do that.”
Say, “Well, what do you want for your kid? Do you want them to develop well?” They might say something like, “I want them to learn Mandarin.” But I want to see if my kid wants to do that. Well, I promise you, every kid in the middle of learning Mandarin is going to feel like not doing that for a while, and then they’re going to feel like doing it, and then they’re going to feel like not doing it.
Parents have to make choices and then have the kid.
Maybe they fail, maybe they don’t. Maybe they fail, maybe they don’t. Support them through that. So the end goal, the end result, is that your kid learned an amazing skill. Kids will never learn amazing skills by making their own choices.
It’s within those big choices that we make as parents that go to school when they’re in martial arts, learning a language like that’s a great example. They’re never going to make really significant growth unless parents make choices for them.
Then the kids learn how to handle all the things that have to happen in the middle. So let’s wrap up.
Talk about when we do set a boundary. One of the challenges is, first of all, it’s naming what the boundary is or naming what the rule is holding the boundary. When they test it, they go get the cookie. They do something.
It may feel like, “I’m being a mean parent.” Or we hear the words, “I don’t want to push my kid.” Then you’re off the hook from setting the boundary or setting the rule, and that’s not going to help your kid. In the end, we have to be able to tolerate the consequences of the outcome.
Maybe you made sure they had to learn to do the homework themselves, and they didn’t, and they got a C. My gosh. Is that the end of the world? If you can’t stand that, if you can’t tolerate that, then guess what? You’re going to end up helping them with their homework, and they’re not going to learn anything and they’re not going to learn how to do more important things like manage their time, which is what makes people successful as adults versus whatever the grade that they may or may not have gotten.
So these three things I think are really important. Being able to be very clear about what they’re doing. Being able to hold true to whatever that thing is they’re supposed to do. Not helping with their homework, for example, and then tolerating the outcome. Most parents have the trouble that
if I don’t do this, they’re going to maybe fail. They’re not going to get a good grade. Maybe they won’t do well and then they won’t tolerate doing it. They won’t even set the goal because what happens if the outcome is bad?
We have to allow for some of those outcomes, otherwise they won’t grow so healthy. Parenting. If you do this, then you’re less stressed about your relationship with your kid. You’re setting less rules and less boundaries.
Then the kid has to have the consequences happen based on that. Then it’s not… We have to be able to live with not perfect outcomes. We have to be able to live with our kids not being happy with us or not being grateful that we made them learn Mandarin. I’m so grateful that you made me learn Mandarin. I’m so happy.
Even when they’re adults, they may go get a job, or they’re speaking Mandarin all the time, and you’d expect them to come and you go. “Thank you, Senior Master Sanborn, for teaching me this.”
They go, “No, we don’t expect that and don’t expect them not to struggle.” Don’t expect not to struggle is very important. Anything to add there before we go?
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 29:53
Whether or not you decide the consequences, punishment is where part of it is. Okay? So if you’re not going to do what I want you to do, then I’m going to do this to you. Whether it’s take away something or something doesn’t happen as opposed to something that’s directly related to the choice they made.
How do I come up with a proper punishment for that if they don’t do it? What’s an appropriate one for discipline on that because they didn’t do it? Am I going overboard if I tell them now they don’t get to watch TV for a week or things like that?
So it’s a hard thing to figure out, but it needs to be such a case where the child makes the decision to do or not to do, and you’re there to support them and help them if they say, “Hey, I can’t do that by myself.”
Okay, great, let’s see what I need to do to help you with it. Because you asked for help, not me jumping to fix it for you.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 31:00
And I think a problem with fixed is sometimes kids are we get caught up in kids complaining. I remember my son and my son wanted when he was like four.
We’re taking him to swimming lessons, and I mean, I he had to learn how to swim. I don’t want him to drown.
I mean, that was like a big deal. And but yet he would a couple times he was like, no, I don’t want to go. And he’s like throwing a fit. And he was just being kind of nuts about it. And here’s the answer in that I had to be able to tolerate.
And I was proud of myself later thinking about it. In this one case, I certainly failed many other times. But, you know, he’s thrown a fit, and he was throwing a fit. I said, okay, well, we got to go.
Yeah, but I don’t want to go swimming. I don’t want to go swimming today. I get that you don’t want to go swimming. We’re let’s get the car, we got to go.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 31:54
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 31:54
And why was that?
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 31:54
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 31:55
Why was I able to tolerate it?
Because whenever, even, regardless of whether he threw a fit and he was really screaming and causing being a pain, it was irrelevant as we teach parents a lot less talking, less emotion. To me, it was irrelevant because in my mind, I know, well, he has to learn how to swim. This is not… There’s nothing here. This is part of what’s going to happen. You’re going to learn how to swim.
So I had to tolerate the consequence of him being in pain about it because the outcome was really important. Now he’s never said, once, “I’m so glad he’s twenty-four. Now he’s never once said, “Dad, I’m so glad that you made me go swimming that day.” That I really was a pain in the butt. He never said that, and I don’t expect him to say that.
I’m not so… Don’t expect thanks or gratitude. So let’s wrap up here. The idea here is that you restrain from fixing it, which is how you show care, love, and support for your kid. Me being there when my kid was throwing a fit and he didn’t want to go swimming was how I showed I cared for him. I was willing to put up with that and not yell at him.
I didn’t do anything, we were going, and that was the end of it, except it was the end of it. He kept being a pain in the butt, but we still… He still went swimming. At the end of swimming, he was fine, but maybe you wouldn’t have been. I still had to live with that and tolerate it.
So one thing we always talk about if you’re a black belt, but when you get to black belt, it’s never because you didn’t fail sometime, it never because you didn’t fall. You always had challenges. That’s why we believe black belt such a big deal because it is hard and because it is a challenge in parents. You’ve got to be able to accept that, the outcome where sometimes they feel like, “I don’t feel like doing it,” or “I don’t feel like doing this,” or maybe they didn’t do as good as another kid, or maybe they didn’t do something, and that’s how they grow and that’s how they become successful.
So anything else to wrap up with? Master Sanborn? I know you’ve got people acting for you.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 34:01
Nope, that was good for me. I’m teaching kids to make decisions for themselves, giving them independence. They’re just stronger as adults that way, and your life is better later anyway, if you’re not covering.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 34:15
Your life will be better. Yeah, and if you handle it this way, not hovering, not rescuing every time, it’s much less stressful for you. It has the benefit of number one being the best way to support your kid. Number two, your life is a lot better.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 34:30
Yes.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 34:32
So let’s kind of finish with that. Thank you very much, Senior Master. As always, I really appreciate all the help and support and how much you help the other families and the people in the school.
Thank you.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 34:48
Are we done?
Chief Master Greg Moody | 34:48
Yeah, ‘ca I saw you like fidgeting to go.
Sr. Master Laura Sanborn | 34:51
I got to go. So I got some.
Chief Master Greg Moody | 34:52
Okay, you later. Okay, talk to you later. Bye.

P.P.S. Get Dr. Moody’s Book on Bullying – Click Here


KarateBuilt.com and KarateBuilt Martial Arts have been selected as the nation’s #1 martial arts schools for EIGHT YEARS IN A ROW!

KarateBuilt L.L.C. was founded in 1995 by Dr. Greg Moody, an 8th-degree Black Belt and Chief Master Instructor, KarateBuilt Martial Arts and Karate for Kids offer lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up are designed to develop critical building blocks kids need – specialized for their age group – for school excellence and later success in life.

KarateBuilt Martial Arts Adult Karate training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay in shape), or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.

Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week at 866-311-1032 for one of our nationwide locations. You can also visit our website at KarateBuilt.com.

About Dr. Greg Moody:  Dr. Moody is an eighth-degree black belt and chief master instructor.  He has a Ph.D. in Special Education from Arizona State University (along with a Master’s Degree in Counseling and a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering – he actually is a rocket scientist). He has been teaching martial arts for over 25 years and has owned eight martial arts schools in Arizona and California. Chief Master Moody is a motivational speaker and educator and teaches seminars in bullying, business, and martial arts training, around the world. See more at DrGregMoody.com.

Dr. Moody is also a licensed psychotherapist and maintains a practice at Integrated Mental Health Associates (IntegratedMHA.com) where he specializes in couples therapy and men’s issues.

The KarateBuilt Martial Arts Headquarters at KarateBuilt LLC is in Cave Creek, Arizona at 29850 N. Tatum Blvd., Suite 105, Cave Creek AZ 85331. You can locate the Chief Instructor, Master Laura Sanborn there directly at ‭(480) 575-8171‬. KarateBuilt Martial Arts serves Cave Creek, Carefree, Scottsdale, and Paradise Valley Arizona as well as Grand Rapids, MI.

Also, check us out on Today in Business and Educators Observer!

Here is Dr. Moody’s Amazon Author Page with over 16 of his Amazon Bestselling books: Click HERE

P.P.P.S. From a parent:

“Since joining this program, my son Herman is more disciplined, motivated, and unstoppable in every challenge he faces!” – Emily Green