Children copy what they see you do!

Children do what they see you do and never what you tell them to do. When you tell them something, their small minds begin to wander into an adventure. They ask themselves questions about what you said and even try for themselves to see the outcome of something that they were forbidden to do. When the outcome is severe, they back down but later begin to observe what the elders do about the thing.

I love cooking. Ever since I was a young boy, I always wanted to cook for myself while exploring different options for any meal. I would go as far as even mixing up the food to see how the outcome is. Some even ended up tasting nasty ending up in the trash can. When I get into the kitchen, I normally have wild ideas of how I can cook something and try out different spices on it. I even went looking for different recipes and tried them on different occasions.

My daughter, who is 14 years old knows how to cook delicious meals. She was taught by her mother, my wife, how to cook. My favorite of all the foods that she cooks is Spanish fried eggs. This is frying eggs using onions, tomatoes, coriander, and other vegetables that make it more sumptuous. I have tried severally to copy and cook this meal the way she does it but all in vain. The humorous part of this is that I was the one who taught her how to fry eggs.

I used to tell her to come and watch the way I cooked eggs and noodles. She watched closely and became more interested and soon enough she was cooking the eggs for me every morning. She became creative with it and gave it a lot of her time and patience. She added the condiments to the eggs and flat-fried them without getting them burnt while letting everything cook well. This was the beginning of her cooking journey and before long, she was cooking loads of other things very well without much supervision.

We need to be careful as parents and guardians about the things that we do around our children. This is because they pick up everything and before long they begin to do it while getting more creative to explore more and be adventurous. Now, this depends on what they learn from you. You cannot tell them not to do something as you are busy doing the same thing in the full glare of their eyes. They will ask themselves loads of questions and when they see you continue doing these things, they will follow suit.

If they see you throw insults at other people all the time, drive recklessly while jumping the red light, drink alcohol while misbehaving in their presence, or get abusive when talking to other people including loved ones and family members. It is not long before they tell themselves that what you are doing is not wrong but part of life. So next time you want to do something you can never be proud of, look around and if you see some little innocent eyes looking at you. Stop and do it later when the coast is clear.

Always be alert and raise or help raise someone to be better than you are. Society needs that. Life is full of challenges that need good people to come by. Good people are built when they are young. That is the time that they are full of hope and determination. They are ready to learn and you should be their teacher. They are ready for adventure and you should be their guide. They look up to you so be smart around them and make the best out of them.