Us fat people

It has been an interesting adjustment to see my youngest take part in karate. I never honestly thought in a million years that she would be into it. So far it is keeping her attention and she is stoked to go twice a week, once she gets another year (in age) under her belt she can go up to four times a week which I am sure will happen. Many of the kids walk into the Dojo and love it, but it seems some of the parents are a little odd when it comes to just watching their kids learn something new and enjoy it.

Something odd has happened recently, maybe not odd but it puzzled me a bit. The session earlier this week was great and the more she goes the more she loves it. The kids were working on their stances and punches as well as burning pretty much all energy out of them just shy of an hour training. They also took the time to learn how to count to five in Japanese. For those wondering it is quite cleaver in the way a single person your child barely knows can grasp teaching them something so different in such a short time span. Pretty damn cleaver if you ask me.

Now during each class which I really do enjoy going to, I see all types of parents. Some like me who will randomly check their phone to keep updated about work or the occasional person who is playing some silly game on Facebook. I also see some parents who are there with other kids helping them with homework. One of the things I did not expect to see, or at least hear was the person in the row behind me. I was sitting in the front row as being tall I prefer to not be scrunched up in a mid or back row. The woman behind me mentioned to her friend that “us fat people” need to move their seats further away so they have more room. It felt a little odd to me because here we three are in this section of seating that would fit about 20 people and I was the only somewhat skinny’ish person.

I understand that people love to joke about all sorts of things but really seemed out-of-place. That is the type of comment you make in your home, around your friends in a private setting – not somewhere in public with others around to hear or your own kids as well as other children too. It just seemed strange to me I guess. I was not offended myself for being thinner than these women but I was offended that they felt a Dojo was the proper place to crack fat jokes. Maybe not offended but shamed by their random remarks.

What would happen if a kid in the class were actually taken karate to better benefit from proper fitness? What about the parents of said child? How about the people who have worked hard to loss weight in the first place? I am still working out and while I have dropped a great deal of weight it just seems like public downgrading of ones self to actually make a statement like that. I hope the next session goes better or at the very least these people are nowhere near me.