Think back on your time as a child. Did you slip into mom’s high heels and wear her lipstick?
Did you pick up dad’s razor and give yourself a “shave” to feel grown up? Yes, you did! We’ve
all done it at some point of our growing up. Similarly we subconsciously imbibed their
mannerisms, lifestyle choices and thought processes.

The influence we parents have on our children is enormous. Think about it.
If you read, chances are your children will have a love for knowledge-after all they’ve grown up
with books all around them! If there’s music playing in the house when your child is growing up,
there will probably be music in your child’s life forever. If you have high work ethics and integrity, it will rub off on your child. Know that you are under a microscope. Your every action
is being noted and imbibed by a child in the house. You eating habits are your child’s eating
habits. Your propensity to maintain a healthy lifestyle encourages your child to do the same.
No doubt peer pressure is a very important factor in shaping the behaviour of your child –
particularly in the turbulent teenage years. It dictates the manner of their dressing, eating,
hanging out and what music they listen to. Everyone wants to be considered “cool” and up there
with the rest of the pack. And then there’s societal pressure with its own definition of what is
considered a “successful” person – the one that scores high academically, that gets entry into the
right college and so on. Through all this remember that no matter how rebellious a child is during
this phase, their actions will ultimately be dictated with what they have seen and learned at home
from their first role models – YOU!

I remember my son utterly frustrated as he negotiated these difficult years, and we standing
helplessly by the side as he struggled with what was going on, on the outside and what his
conscience was telling him to do. Often he would vent his anger on us, his parents, and accuse us
of giving him such moral standards that made it hard for him to go where the rest of his peers
were going. Such is the power of your influence as parents.

Exercise it wisely.