After writing my blog this morning, I thought more about how our children model themselves after us.  They learn by watching our behavior.  The retain the words we use, the actions we take and some of those not so nice habits.  It brought a few examples to mind.

My husband and four year old son came home one day, after a successful day of fishing.  Paul caught a record breaking fish and our son caught a smaller one, but just as important to him.  Every time someone came over, Paul would take the fish out of the freezer for his friends to see.  Soon our son was showing his catch of the day to his buddies.  Unfortunately, he was too little to reach the freezer, so he stored it in his toy box. It didn’t take long for me to realize the fish was now decomposing, as the smell emitted from the toy box.  It wasn’t funny at the time, but showed me how our children so want to be like us.

When the same son was playing soccer at the age of 8 or so, he was fortunate to have a coach from South America.  All the boys adored this fellow and wanted to be just like him.  As the coach began his training, he wanted the boys do everything he did – following his every move.  The demonstration began and the boys were right on it.  Especially when the coach swallowed a gnat and began to cough.  The whole team began to cough as well.

When we moved into a new house, I was putting up pictures on the wall.  My, then five year old daughter, proceeded to pound nails into her bedroom wall to display her Barbie clothes.

They watch us.  They learn.  I’ll bet there are hundreds of stories out there of how your kids followed the leader when growing up.  Please feel free to share them.  We all need a good laugh.  It’s Friday and maybe some humor would lighten things up a little.