Posted: February 22, 2025
Children are constantly taking in information and storing it in their hearts and minds. Think of your child like they're a video camera capturing everything they see and hear and experience from you. They save all of this in their hearts and minds and then in many ways think and act based on everything they've learned from you.
So how do we as parents influence our children? By how we treat them, how we treat ourselves and how we treat each other.
Do we praise our children for their effort rather than on their results? Do we mirror to our children their uniqueness and specialness? Do we help them know the truth about their essence which is loving, kind, caring, thoughtful, playful, creative and giving? Are we fair and considerate of their feelings? Do we try to understand them and empathize with what their feeling? Do we give them the space to learn on their own while at the same time helping guide them and letting them know that we're always by their side if they need to lean on us?
Do we show our children what it looks like to take loving care of ourselves? Do we get enough sleep, eat healthy, keep our bodies in good shape? Do we set loving boundaries with people who are not supporting our highest good? Are we compassionate with ourselves when we make an error? Are we open to learning so that we can learn life's lessons? Do we take loving actions that make us feel higher self-worth. Do we speak our truth and stand up for ourselves in ways that take into consideration how others feel? Do we follow our heart where ever it leads us?
Do we accept our partner without trying to control and change them? When our partner needs to talk to us do we stop whatever we're doing and give them our full attention? If something is important to your partner is it also important to you? Do we respect our partner, support them, believe in them and encourage them to find what brings them joy and then do more of it? Do we share our happiness and excitement and passion with each other? Do we show and act on our love for them in many different ways. Do we honor their spirit and offer our hand when they need to be helped up from hard times.
We all want our children to be all they can be. Even though we can't control this happening, we can strongly influence their choices in the world. Recognizing the major ways that we influence our children can help us make conscious healthy choices about how we treat them, how we treat ourselves and how we treat our partner.
Our children deserve our best because they are our best!