Days of Our Lives

Ready for her turn

They both groaned when I told them they would be going to the Radkids program that day, for a whole week.

“I don’t want to go to!”

I heard grunts, grumbles and more groaning, but I insisted.

“Just try it. You might like it.”

They know what it’s all about. We’ve watched a video of a program similar to Radkids (it’s probably a program that is of Radkids but named another thing). It’s a program designed to teach kids how to defend themselves against abductors, and how to escape abduction.

That week was quite a crazy week for me, because the Radkids program ran from 3 – 5 pm from Monday through Friday, and I have Taleem class on Wednesday and Thursday. As an icing on the ‘cake’, Baby Z acted strange on one of those class days, and I had to spend an extra hour at the doctor trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Alhamdulillah it was not heat exhaustion or anything serious. The most the nurse practitioner said about him was,

“It might be viral. He might be coming up with something.”

But he didn’t. Alhamdulillah. He had woken up that morning crying (not normal), and his face and head and neck suddenly sweated a lot, and he didn’t wake up for a long time. I had to wake him up and I did so because it was worrying me. Alhamdulillah though his appetite was normal, and even though he didn’t utter any grunts before the doctor visit, after the afternoon nap, he was acting very normally again, walhamdulillah.

The first day N and H attended the Radkids program, they came home somewhat excited. I asked them what they learned. Their homework was to draw our house plan with exit routes in case of emergencies. The second day, they had learned some moves, and we were to devise a password between us parents and kids that only we are privy to. In case strangers claim to be sent by us to pick them up, this password would be the determinant of whether that person is a fraud or not. By the second day, they had already fallen in love with the program. Alhamdulillah hubby did the picking up on the days that I had class. The climax of this program was Friday, their ‘graduation’ day. The parents were invited.

Unfortunately, hubby couldn’t make it because they were having a farewell party for his boss. So it was just me and a very distracted and movey Baby Z watching all the moves the kids learned and demonstrated. They were donned with helmets, gloves and knee pads. Mr H. also donned pads and helmet with a visor, which proved to be very necessary.

For each kid, Mr. H grabbed, picked up, from the front, from behind and each kid used the moves they learned throughout the week to attack their abductor (poor Mr. H who was kicked, elbowed, poked by about 11 or more kids each time, thank Allah for those bulky pads).

H and N gave all they had when it was their turn. I didn’t realize they were that strong. It’s very unfortunate that we live now in a time where we have to resrot to teach our children these things. Hopefully they will never have to use these moves in a real life situation, but if they have to, I think they might truly inflict some pain on the unfortunate person.

S was relieved not to be in the program because she has no desire to shout,

“No! No! No! No!” while persistently poking the pretend abductor in the eye with her hands.

Nor was she willing to take the Radkids stance and shout,

“Stop! You’re not my dad!”

Regardless, I hope she will be able to defend herself if the situation abounds. She did say,

“if someone tries to get me, I’ll just hurt them any way I can anyway!”

“Yes, but the police teach you what part to kick and punch or poke because there are some parts of the body that are more vulnerable than others,” I said.

The cake that they served at the end had all the kids’ names on it, which was wonderful. In fact, when they cut the cake up, they served each kid their own names.

At the end, when H and N went to say thank you to the officers who taught them, one of them said,

“They have some pretty good strikes there! He got me pretty bad yesterday. I have bruises!”

She was referring to H’s kicks I suppose. I guess those soccer games prepped him up real good.

As for N, well, I guess she has some pretty good pent up energy that came out in physical strikes.

All in all, it was a pretty good program. An “I told you so’ was due.

Those groans and grunts at the beginning of the week turned into enthusiastic talks and moves.

I told you so. Next time just listen to your mother.