Your Children Are Watching You.

I recently heard the song Drivers Education by Ray Stevens it is a funny little song with an important message.
In the song, a man takes his son out into the country to teach him how to drive. As he is about to hand his son the keys he tells him that there are some things that he needs to know. The son replies that he knows everything that he needs to know, and has been watching his dad for years. The son goes on to list the things that his dad has been doing that he should not have been doing like speeding, slowing down instead of stopping,… and then ask if it is OK for him to use the words he uses now that he is driving. The father is so embarrassed by all the things that his son has caught him doing that he decides to hire someone to teach his son to drive.

As parents, myself included we all are a bit hypocritical at times. We sometimes say words that would make us flip out if our kids said them, we use our spare time to watch TV, while we are telling our kids that they should be reading. You are the most important teacher that your child has, even if you don’t realize it, but there is a catch. They listen to their school teachers, they don’t listen to you half as often as they WATCH you! What you do matters twice as much as what you say. When you eat junk food they learn to eat junk food, when you speed in your car, they learn to speed, when they never see you look at a book, they learn that reading isn’t important, if they never see you pray, they will not pray either. Be the person that you want your kid to be, because when they grow up they won’t admit it, but they will be just like you.