Ball State

» sparring gear

By China at 9:30 AM

My brother has always wanted to be a boxer. He started out loving boxing I think because he always appreciated the fact that boxers were big and strong and I think that because my father was always so tough on him growing up, he thought that if he were bigger and stronger that he could stand up for himself better. Or maybe it was a self image thing because he still tells about how he weighed only 90 lbs in the 10th grade in high school and that he still remembers. Anyway he is not small anymore and has worked hard to pack on the muscle and has continued to love boxing. As a matter of fact he just recently moved out of my parents house and had to make sure that he found a big enough place that he could store all his sparring gear. He absolutely loves boxing, except now I am concerned because my nephew who is 3 is following my brother around and is punching everything in sight. I know that it is normal for a boy to idolize his uncle and everyone else in the family thinks that it is cute, but I am really concerned. I really don't want to see my nephew become obsessed with boxing like my brother is. As a matter of fact, I do think that my brother needs to seek counseling for his issues surrounding this as well. I am afraid he is going to get himself killed or just get his head bashed in by a person who is just as angry as he is. So far, he has seemed to come out of his fights relatively unharmed, but I refuse to even go and watch, and quite honestly my sister is thinking about bringing my nephew to his next fight. I just think that this is too much violence for a 3 year old boy to witness, especially if my brother were to get hurt. It just seems to me that it would be better for him not to see this fight, but everyone in the family just says I am being silly. I have even gone so far as to speak to my counselor about this, and fortunately he says that I am not crazy and that although it is probably best for my nephew not to go to the fight, that is my sister's decision and not mine. I can express my opinions, but after that it is out of my hands. Well, I don't like the fact that they are exposing him to this, but at the same point it was nice to hear someone agree with my side of the story.