“Don't bother educating your children,
in the end they will be like you.
Educate yourself and be a model to them”.
He is too fat, too skinny, a picky eater…. What are YOUR eating habits and YOUR relationship to body image?
She speaks badly, screams, curses…. How much of respectful communication are YOU using at home?
He doesn’t have any social skills, never shares, never seems to blend in… How often do YOU meet with friends?
He is watching TV all the time, spends hours on the computer/ on the tablet… How much time a day are YOU spending on screens?
We can speak lengthy about genetics, temper, or inborn “personality”, but in the end our children learn almost everything from us, their parents, they simply copycat us....
Through the atmosphere that is created in our home and through our behavior, without any words, they just learn everything about life: what’s it like to be a man, or a women, what are relationships about, how to behave one to another, how to treat people that are weaker than us, how to feel about authority, how to communicate, how to listen, or to share, how to eat, what to eat, how much to take care of our body, how to act in society, how much to respect our work, or other’s work, or property, or money and more and more and more…
Remember that all those values are inscribed in your family atmosphere – all the spoken values, but mostly the unspoken ones, the ones we model through our behavior.
So if something “bothers” you in your child’s behavior – something doesn’t feel right, annoys you, saddens you or just drives you crazy… check yourself first! What is happening in your home? What are your feeling about that matter?
Remember you have a choice. You can choose to make a change. The change always has to start with us, the parents, and with the behavior we choose to model.
“Don't bother educating your children, in the end they will be like you. Educate yourself and be a model to them”.