Children Imitate Their Parents
A few years ago, I read an article about children imitating their parents. Although I couldn’t locate the exact article, the link below will drive home the important points:
Children Imitate Their Parents
When I first read about this topic, it didn’t have much of an impact on my life. I wasn’t a parent, so wasn’t about to read up on my parenting skills. Now that I am a parent however, things have changed.
I can now testify firsthand to the accuracy of the old article. My son Troy imitates my actions. He follows me around the house. He loves to come into the gym and imitate our actions. If he sees something, he wants to try it himself.
Sounds great, right?
Well, in my eyes it is, but imitation isn’t always useful to children if the parents are not conducting themselves appropriately. If you sit around and watch television all day, you can expect the same from your child. If you have poor eating habits, you can expect the same from your child. After all, I’m sure your children don’t do their own grocery shopping.
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The Modern Forager site recently linked to the following article:
Too Much TV Linked To Behavioral Problems
To summarize the article:
“Researchers found that children who watched more than two hours of television per day from age 2 1/2 until age 5 1/2 were more likely to develop sleep, attention, and aggressive behavior problems than those who watched less.
In addition, researchers found 5 1/2-year-olds who watched more than two hours of television per day also had fewer social skills.”
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Throughout this blog, I’ve often addressed the topic of childhood obesity. To correct this problem, we as parents need to correct our actions, so our children can begin to imitate true role models. We need to become role models to our children.
What kind of example are you setting if you sit around all day and abuse your body? How can you expect your child to do differently?
As a parent, I cherish the time with my child. We don’t sit around and watch television. My son loves to go outside and run in the yard. He loves to throw the ball. He loves to play, and he’s only 16 months old.
I’m guessing that we all started off this way, but somehow many kids end up going down the wrong path. They get lost playing video games, watching television, and playing on the computer.
What happened to kids going outside to play? That’s all we did as kids, but I don’t see the same interest in many kids today. We as parents need to change this pattern.
I’m still a big kid at heart, and cherish the time that I can play with my son.
Lead from the front, and your child will be a proud follower!
Ross
13 Comments so far
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haha, nice
As a Victim of this exact thing, great blog! My would spend their entire day eating junk and watching TV/being on the computer if they had a choice, and that is what they do on the weekends! My earliest memory of my parents were them watching TV. I never played with them outside and we used to eat Mcdonalds 7x a week. Thank god I have found this site and others and changed. Who knows what I suffer from today from being put infront of a tv for 7 hours a day as a child, but I wont let that stop me!
I just want to say that that picture is straight out awesome
I agree with everything you say. I can’t wait to get home form work and play with my 15 month old daughter.
this kid is going to be a unit
Ross your words can’t be any truer. One of the many reasons that I visit this site regularly and purchased your products is for I can have a positive impact on my child’s life. Once my son is a little older (5.5 months as of tomorrow) he’ll be “Ross Training” next to me.
Great post! I will make sure to share this with my husband, so maybe this will get him to stop watching so many sports I want my little girl growing up very active like her mom.
Great blog, when I do squats my two year old says “look daddy I doin squash, I gotta work out.” I only hope her watching me exercise will lead her in the same path. Oh and kids also make great weight vests.
NICE HOUSE!!!
I have a similar picture of me and my baby cousin.
Every time I do handstands my kitten crawls under me, I’m not sure if he’s trying to imitate me, but he likes to see me in different positions.
Great post! Thanks Ross!
That’s awesome Ross, I hope he grows up and does crazy workouts just like his dad!
Jeremy
www.fitness-made-fun.com
yeha this is a similar idea to Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people. If your thought process is what your child sees for most of his life then he/she thinks that is what the normal person is like and will try to mimic that. your personal views are almost like genetics in that you pass them on to your child.