I'm a fierce mother bear

I always saw myself as the mother bear. Soft and cuddly, but ready to tear into action on a moment's notice if my family were threatened.

My daughter mentioned that she is happy she made it through childhood unmolested. {33% of girls and 14% of boys are molested before the age of 18} I told her this was no small feat. Especially considering that I was divorced from her father for most of her childhood and have been married twice subsequently. The statistics on child abuse and molestation go up significantly when there are non-bio-father men in the home. {A child in a female-headed home is 10 times more likely to be beaten or murdered. (The Legal Beagle, July 1984, from “The Garbage Generation”)}

I feel the reason she and her brothers were protected was partially luck, but mostly because I took up martial arts when they were babies. She was about 3 and her brother was 9 months when I first took up the study of Hakkoryu Jujitsu. I received a black belt. Jujitsu is an awesome art and sport. I learned Judo throws, Karate strikes and blocks, and methods of hand-to-hand combat in cases of attack by knife, garrote, long sword, short sword, choking from in front, behind or on the ground, or baseball bat/club. I also joined the martial artists at the shooting range and took a course in combat pistol shooting. When she and her brother were about 8 and 6 years old, respectively, I attended the International Karate Association under Takayuki Kubota, studying Karate and the use of ancient Japanese weapons. I received a brown belt.

I did not keep this a secret from my suitors.

I recently encouraged my daughter to take martial arts classes and she laughed and said I sounded like her Marine boyfriend. He has told her repeatedly that she needs to study martial arts.

I can't recommend these classes strongly enough for everybody, but especially moms and kids. For moms, there are great benefits of exercise and toning, self defense, camaraderie, and stress relief. For kids they receive similar benefits and also learn discipline and a respect for authority that is often lacking in American society.