Does a parent way of life affect a child?

Do you know your child especially the little ones between ages of 5 - 12 kind of walk in your shoes or follow after your ways and actions? Ok I can see some raised eyebrows, relax and just continue reading. I will give you some personal experiences to buttress this interesting fact I recently figured out. I visited a family  some time back and the kind of behaviour I  saw the mum and the eldest sister exhibiting was appalling. Out of respect for them because I am definitely a baby if you were to compare my age with that of the eldest sister's.  I couldn't say anything to make them see reason that what they were doing was wrong.

Fast forward to a few weeks, I and the youngest child of about 8 years were alone in the house when she did exactly the same thing I could barely stand the mum and eldest sister do in front of me 'cos I did try to talk the eldest sis out of it one time, but she told me she couldn't stop because it was already a part of her. Hmmn... the moment I saw the youngest sis do it, all hell broke loose inside of me..hehe. All the pent up anger at sis and mum, I poured it on  the little girl , I shouted at her so much that I  felt so bad after, but please don't blame me 'cos may be if you were in my shoes you will do same or even worse. Quickly I called her and apologised to her. Then it dawned on me that this little girl just did what I normally see her mum and sister do. I quietly asked her if she knew that what she did was wrong and she answered with a "no ma". I told her it was wrong of her to do that and made her promise not to do it again.

Am sure that little girl must have had asked herself this question, 'if it is wrong, then why is mum n sis doing it'?. We live in a world where parents never seem to care much about their wards anymore except to know if they have eaten?. Don't you think there is more to parenting than that? This little lads to the best of their knowledge feel mum should be doing the right thing all the time and they tread the same path as their parents most of the time.

This is a wake up call to we all, parents and adults alike, take time out to think things through especially your way of life and it's effect on the 'still - growing - learning' child. It is never too late to make things right 'cos as the saying goes, it is not over until it is over!.