Since I'm the "paying customer" shouldn't I be in charge of my child's training and decide if they should practice at home, what they wear to class, how my other children behave in the lobby, etc?

As politely as we can respond, the answer is "No ... and remember why you brought them here in the first place." Yes, this is how we pay our bills and yet it's not your money that motivates how we run our program. We will not compromise our program or our Mission Statement to satisfy a parent or student who wants to try to bully us to get their way. That diminishes our program for all the other students. Helping each student become more respectful, confident and skilled in martial arts is more important to us than appeasing parents by letting them hold their status as a "paying customer" over our heads. Does that mean we act like harsh, mean tyrants and yell at parents? Of course not!

Martial arts is about respect and discipline, though, and that applies to parents and siblings and other visitors as well as the student in our program. After all, shouldn't you model the same behavior expected of your children and let them see that consequences don't apply only to children and that even adults can graciously acknowledge when they have erred?

We understand that in many arenas of life (school, sports, with friends) parents may feel the need to aggressively advocate for their child so their child isn't ignored and overlooked. We understand that many sports programs can tend to be solely about the the physical skills of the sport and that only the "star" players get noticed ... if a parent doesn't challenge the coaches. At Hilliard Taekwondo Academy our martial arts program is about becoming a more respectful, disciplined, focused person of integrity in addition to developing awesome taekwondo skills. That's one of the reasons we start class immediately on the minute of the scheduled class time and end classes no later than the posted time have the student tell us that when they arrive.

Ignoring our recommendations for your child to test or not, to practice at home or not, or repeatedly questioning information we have given you is disrespectful to us and models for your child that it is okay to not listen, to ignore what we are teaching them which includes: sign up to test when you get your red stripe, only certified HTA instructors may teach a student (parents, siblings, other students are not to try to teach at home), asking if a student passed testing before results are given, pay attention when we talk so you don't need to question or ask for the same information repeatedly, etc. Again, we understand that many children's program are run by volunteer coaches who allow or overlook parents telling them how they want their children coached, played, etc. Just because we do not agree with you about your child's progress, when they should test, etc, or if we tell you that you are stepping on our toes with your questions/suggestions it does not mean we are being disrespectful to you ... we are trying to let you know that you are bordering on being disrespectful to us. Our priority is the student and ensuring that they have the best opportunities to challenge themselves while at the same time not putting them in a situation where they will feel entirely overwhelmed.

You and our staff want the same thing ... for you and/or your child to become a more accomplished martial artist and a more confident, focused, disciplined person of integrity. Let's work together to make that happen.