One summer noon when I was a pediatric resident, I was walking down a street in Milwaukee on my way to lunch when the light turned red. Directly in front of me was a young man with a small toddler. As we waited for the light to change, the father squatted to talk to his son. As he did so, the son also squatted. What a picture! Kids do what they see their parents do, and at every age.
Country music artist Rodney Atkins in his 2007 hit song “Watching You” hits it on the head. In the lyrics, a young boy curses and when the dad asks where he learned the offensive word the boy explains that he’s been watching his dad. He thinks what his dad does is “cool,” and he wants to emulate everything he sees his dad do.
Kids do what they see their parents do. One summer I asked the 103 teens I saw for health evaluations who most influenced their values of right and wrong. Of these, 83 said mom, dad, or parents; three said brothers or sisters; three credited themselves as their main influence; three said others (teachers, coaches, ministers); while three had no one to credit. Only eight said friends. Likewise, in a Horatio Alger survey on The State of Our Nation’s Youth, 68 percent of the girls ages 14 to 19 and 70 percent of boys that age named a parent, sibling, or other family member as their role model. Only 15 percent named a friend, and even fewer mentioned an entertainment celebrity or an athlete.
Like it or not, parents everywhere are the main role models for their children. Be the adult you want your child to become!
(This is a re-run of a previous blog. I hope you enjoy it this time, too.)