Monkey See, Monkey do. How You Influence Your Kids in Everyday Life

Monkey See, Monkey do. How You Influence Your Kids in Everyday Life

Children learn every second that they exist. Most of the time that a child spends learning is not in a school setting, yet they learn nonetheless. This is because humans and many other animals learn through mimicry. Mimicry is vital to think about as your child grows older. There are a few significant things that you teach your child without realizing it at all. These are five things that will take form in a child just by being around you.

How they Handle Emotions

When you are raising your child, how you display and handle your emotions is vital to the growth of your child. Most children are curious and watch every move you make. While they may not realize it, the way that you display anger, happiness, or sadness can affect the way they do those same things.

For example, if you have problems controlling your temper, they will see those outbursts and not understand that this isn't something they should do. In an attempt to be more like you, they will lash out in much the same way. This is true for any emotion that you show. Having emotional maturity can help your child grow in the same way.

How they Handle Food

Teaching starts at home. This habit can be seen in what a child eats and what a child wants. Making sure to eat healthy as your child grows will show them the importance of eating right. Taking them to fast food and grabbing fun meals too often might hurt their understanding of how to live a healthy life.

Examples of this can be seen in the increasing rate of childhood obesity. Though we as parents might not be likely to admit it, we can often find the solution to our child’s problems in the ways that we have been acting. Try to be healthier, and your kid will want to follow you and be more like you.

What They Think

Kids often have the same opinions as adults. If you’ve ever heard a child or toddler say a cuss word, usually it’s because they’ve seen a parent do it at similar times. This is important to remember when you make jokes or say things around your child. While the adults in the room can understand sarcasm and humor, a child might take what you said to heart.

Kids want to be just like us. For this reason, being careful about what we say around them is very important. Working to be judge free can help a child to grow up and not judge others as well. Think about all of the things you say and how an innocent child’s mind could take it.

How They Work Out

If you are healthy, your child will be healthy. If you start to do less, so will they. Children are number one at playing copy cat. This is an important thing to think about when looking at how active they are. If you don’t get out of the house and walk, they will see no reason to. All parents want is to raise their child the best they can.

However, what we sometimes forget is that we need to show them how to be the best they can. Many parts of raising a child involve doing what we want them to do. In a child’s case, “do as I say not as I do,” often does not work. Doing as you want them to do has a much more significant impact on their life.

Screen Time

Finally, what could be the most surprising or unsurprising thing on the list, think about how much time you spend on your phone. Now think about how much interest your child shows in smartphones and electronic devices. There is a high chance that if you spend a lot of time on a phone, your child will as well.

Think about spending less time on your phone around your child. Show them all the wonders of our world and how they don’t need a screen to keep entertained. It’s no secret that the news likes to talk about the impacts of screen time on a child. However, just like everything else on this list, we should look at ourselves as parents first. Everything starts at home.


It’s easy to look at a kid and be proud of how far they’ve come. We love to think of how we’ve helped them in getting there. However, it can be hard to admit when we might have been doing something wrong. No one likes to accept that they aren’t perfect. However, changing the way that you act to help your child better doesn’t mean that you were wrong. It just says that you want to be better than you were before. The best part is that most of these changes not only help your kid but make you healthier as well.


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