and there was a scene that shows how baby monkeys imitate their parents in cracking palm seeds with stones. It may take years for them to perfect the skill but with much practicing, they would eventually get their palm seeds crack, just like the way of their parents.Likewise, our children learn by observing and imitating from people around them. In school, they may be influenced by their peers and teachers. At home, it would definitely be from the parents, older siblings or even lived-in relatives.
An exasperated mum ever exclaimed how her two teenage daughters follow the bad habit of their daddy of throwing their outer-coats, gloves and socks around the house as they enter it. She literally has to pick up everything for the three of them everyday when they come home. Laborious but she could not do much to amend the situation.
Yes, we are all imperfect people and some of us may even have the notion that our home is our sanctuary. And hence we can afford to do whatever we like. However, we need to exercise some consideration especially if we are sharing the “sanctuary” space with someone we love. We do not want to turn it into “hell” for them.
If we want our kids to be neat and organized in the house, we as adults have to model it first at home. If we want our kids to be truthful and honest, we have to live it out. If we want our kids to be man or woman of integrity, we have to exercise it in our daily dealings. It is true - our children silently observe how we live our lives.
When we regularly fail to role-model what we desire our child to be, we are actually signaling a double-standard to him. And the perils are:-
1. We would loose our child’s respect as we are no longer credible to him.
2. We would lose our speaking right into his life. In another word, he would not obey us or pay much attention to what we say to them.
3. We may have unwittingly grown the seed of resentment in the bosom of our child.
In long run, all the above will strain our relationship with our child.
It is true that we cannot control or block-out completely the negative influences our kids are exposing to nowadays. But we can definitely incubate good habits, values and character-building at home. So let start the ball rolling from us.
