Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate!
- Amz
- Nov 21, 2016
- 3 min read
"The sign of great parenting is not always the child's behavior. The sign of great parenting is the parent's behavior."
I know, I know...I am not a parent and therefore do I have any right to even talk about parenting? I think I do though, I am surrounded by young parents and have parents of my own so over the last 30 years I have observed a thing or two!
This blog however has been inspired by a story my older brother told last night at our family dinner.
As parents you are given an incredible gift, you are given a little human being to protect and teach about life. You are given a chance to show them how to respond to situations this big world will present and all the challenges that come along with it.
My brother is the head coach of his son's hockey team. When a team of eight year old children defeat an undefeated team, the excitement cannot be contained! For all of us the act of "Winning" can draw out from us an ego we may not even realize we have. In our society we are often driven to compete with one another. However living with a competitive attitude can be fuel for achievement but also a very dangerous quality.
It is important that we teach children from a young age how to balance that excitement and how to control their egos.
As my nephew's team is skating off the ice and past the defeated team, their egos speak unsportsmanlike comments to the already low spirited team. Saying things like "You Suck."
When they arrive to their dressing room my brother is approached and told how his son was acting and what he had said to the other team. Without hesitation my brother says to his son in a stern voice as a father and a coach, "stop what your doing and come with me right now!" He marches his son to the oppositions dressing room and asks their head coach if he could have a moment with his team.
Without knowing why this other coach and player need to speak with his team, he quickly tells them all to be silent and listen up. My nephew is sent to the middle of the dressing room and in front of the entire team and coaches has to apologize for his unsportsmanlike slander. Although this was quite a traumatic experience for my nephew to have to go through and he was literally shaking through the process it made a tremendous impact on everyone involved. The principle my brother was demonstrating and went on to speak with this rival team as well as his own team about, was the importance of respect! We will be faced time and time again with the opportunity to choose how we want to treat others and how we want to represent not only our team, but ourselves. We must be humble and kind NO MATTER WHAT! To be a great coach, teacher and father can be overwhelming at times for my brother I am sure, but when it comes to doing the RIGHT thing and making an example of it, he just passed with flying colors!!! This lesson for all those involved and my brother included will be something they will remember and apply to all aspects of their lives.
When it comes to raising your children there is no possible way to child proof this world for them, but rather world proof your children.
Teach them values and right from wrong, so no matter the situation life presents to them they will respond in the best way they can.
Thank you to my amazing brother and nephew for creating this example for us all to benefit from!
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