Parents often wonder where they children pick up the behaviours they do. Things like being messy, using bad language, being slow at doing something are the disgruntled complains of parents the world over.
More worrying for parents can be when children are overly anxious. Its not always the case, but very commonly children are replicating the behaviours they see their parents doing. We don’t always realise what we are doing, or we can see our child doing the same behaviour as the other parent but often we can’t see or believe that they may be replicating our own behaviour.
There is a psychological theory called social learning theory which basically says that children do what they see and time and time again we see it replicated in children’s behaviour.
Instead of using this message as a whip to hit yourself with and feed any internal dialogue of being a poor parent, use this information as a starting point to create awareness of your own behaviours and think of a way of you dealing with that behaviour.
Doing this will lead to change in your behaviour and then you will
1. Model something different for your child
2. Show them that there is something about yourself that does not always help you, you can make a decision to work on it.
Children see everything their parents do-you can have more control over what they see you doing. Be aware of what you do and what they see.
Let’s Talk About It
What would you like to see your children doing? Are you modelling that for them now or something different? Share your thoughts with us?