Do as I say - not as I do.... high hopes!!!!!!!!!!

Try as I did I could never teach my children to put things back where they took them from.

I got a back injury at age 16 which left me with a permanent discomfort if not pain. As a result I am not the tidiest of people. My style of work is something not many can understand or follow. As I have difficulty being in any position - standing or sitting - for longer than 15 or 20 mins at a stretch I tend to have different things going on at the same time. The system works like this - I start out doing something that needs me to stand and after a max of 30 mins I have to sit. So if the job is not complete by then I have to leave it. So I will shift focus to another job that can be done sitting down.

What this leads to is chaotic conditions in the house. I guess my children (though they are very accommodating about this) have always seen that things never seem to go back to their place as soon as their use is over.

And of course they follow what they see however much I try to get them to understand the value of tidiness I fail miserably!!

So "Do as I say, not..." definitely doesn't work.

So that leads me to a question - there are so many corrupt people around. Is there any chance that their children will be honest and trustworthy? After all they see their parent being dishonest?????

 

Hello Vijji,
Nice to hear from you again.

Actually, the example I gave of my children was only an illustration. You are right, children don't always ape parents. May be I should have put it across differently. What I meant was that the 'good' habits are usually more difficult to follow as they require more effort. Hence when children see some 'bad' habits, they tend to ape them if only for the reason that these require less or no effort!

As to your feeling that you will never be able to change your son - maybe, maybe not. But having seen your tidiness, when the time comes for him to be independent and away from you, it is quite possible that he will come to appreciate that quality and also the fact that it makes life much easier. And then at that time without any effort from you he will change for the better!