If you want your children and your youth to behave in a certain way, you have to model it for them. There is a famous quote by the author James Baldwin, “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
There is so much truth to this. You may ask your child t behave in a certain way, but unless they see this behaviour reflected in you, they’re unlikely to feel compelled to listen. Even when children are very young and it might seem as if they’re too young to understand what’s going on around they, they are always watching what you do and how you act, and they absorb this information like a sponge.
They learn how to deal with stress by watching how you handle stress. They learn how to treat others by watching how you treat others.
If you want them to be kind, be kind. If you want them to speak quietly, speak quietly. `So, even if you think they aren’t paying attention to you, be a positive role model for your children and model the behaviours you’d like to see in them.
