There is an old commercial on television in Australia for one of the major telecommunication companies ‘Down Under’ that finds a a young son asking his father as to why the Great Wall of China was built.  The father, not wanting to admit his ignorance states that it was erected by “Chairman Nasi-Goreng to keep the rabbits out”.  The commercial then cuts to the next day with the young boy in in his class room at the front of the class proudly declaring the facts that he had learned from his father as part of a school project.  “Connect to home internet” the commercial finishes on.

Whilst this entertaining commercial never fails to get me laughing I find myself looking at my own children and how much they hang on every word that either myself or their mother allow to cross our lips.  I recall a situation only recently where our son had been playing the car racing game on my cell phone just prior to going out for a drive with my partner.  During the drive he turned to her and said, “Mum…  When you see a police car how come you don’t run away from him or run him off of the road?!”  When asked why he would ask such a thing he replied, “That’s what you do on the video game on Dada’s phone.”

I don’t really want to address too heavily the whole nature vs nurture argument, but I certainly do want to point out that we are all products of our environment to an extent.

The foundation of all that we are in our adult life is undeniably laid out between the ages of 0 to 9 years.  The majority (upto 96%) of all of our paradigms are put in place between these ages.  When you hear of the stories of the requirement to get back in touch with the little boy or girl inside you it is the little boy or girl between the ages of 0 to 9 that they refer to.  The reason that it is so important to get back in touch with this little one is that it is this little one’s paradigms that need to be shifted – altered – replaced for us to begin living the life of our dreams.

You, your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, your great great grandparents and all of your ancestors prior to them passed on all of their fears, concerns, and ways of being to their kids purely out of love and the desire to keep them safe.  Ironically, when you keep going  back even just one generation there is a really good chance  that the people that have passed on the information were more than likely vastly less educated and certainly less knowledgeable than yourself, and yet you allow yourself to be guided (or worse still controlled by) by their judgements or understandings.

Small children look up at adults and adolescents with stars in their eyes, particularly those adults and adolescents that are related to them.  They are sponges for both the right and wrong – the good the bad – the empowering the dis-empowering.  What they (like yourself) pick up is absolutely everything that they hear and feel from you and those that they look up to.  These people include brothers – sisters – cousins – Uncles – Aunts – Family Friends – Big Kids who live in the area – people they look up to on television and in movies (both real actors and cartoon) – people/characters on video games – and a whole plethora of others that may present.

At the end of the day, children take on board everything from everyone that they look up to.  It is the responsibility of the parents to monitor what input is provided to them.  Video games, movies, television programs and the like are much easier to monitor than the words and conversations that they may pick up from people that we care for and that care for us (and our kids), but take on the responsibility with a passion.  We are 100% accountable for how our children grow up.  The success of their adulthood is a representation of the level of success that we have had with them in their youth.

Ah….The Joys of Parenthood.