Toughen Up Your Kids! Take a Lesson from Cro-Mags' Punk Rocker Harley Flanagan

When it comes to toughening up kids, I like Cro-Mags' punk rocker Harley Flanagan's approach and that of the martial arts academy where he works. You can see a bit of it in the final episode of Anthony's Bourdain's Parts Unknown. You briefly see Harley training with kids at Renzo Gracie Academy in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

There's a quick scene in the show where the kids at the academy are all running around and he's kicking a yoga ball directly into them. So funny! 🤣 But also so good for kids! Kids need to fall down and bump their heads. They need to fall off their bikes and scrape their knees. They need to get into a fight or two. That's how you toughen up. It doesn't happen magically all by itself by being sheltered.

Nowadays, parents are so afraid to let their kids take any risk at all, that they end up growing up to be complete pussies and they end up complaining endlessly about the slightest bit of discomfort. I know some of these people and they are highly intolerable for the rest of us who grew up with a healthy sense of risk and reward.

Toughen those kids up! Of course, do it reasonably, but especially when they are young, so that it becomes second nature to get up when they fall down. That's life.