{"id":594223,"date":"2022-07-27T11:47:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T15:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canstaging.earthrangers.com\/?p=592157"},"modified":"2024-08-06T14:25:07","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T18:25:07","slug":"theyre-always-watching-the-power-of-modelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/parenting-blog\/theyre-always-watching-the-power-of-modelling\/","title":{"rendered":"They\u2019re always watching \u2013 the power of modelling."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I\u2019ve got to come clean. When I received the news I was losing my job, I sort of freaked out. It wasn\u2019t a huge, messy scene but I would have liked time to regain my composure. The email about funding cuts came in while I was tapping away on my computer in my remote work station known as the dining room table. <strong>There was no time to process the news on the commute home before I walked in the door to greet my family.<\/strong>&nbsp;My daughter was upstairs doing homework when she heard my cry of alarm.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve had enough lessons over the years raising three children to know how closely kids watch a parent\u2019s reaction to pretty well everything.&nbsp;They may look distracted when you\u2019re fuming in a long line-up or processing some difficult news, but chances are, they\u2019re tucking away that memory in a long list of daily observations.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, you\u2019d be excused if that sounds like a lot of pressure.&nbsp;It\u2019s hard to be scrutinized on most days, never mind when you\u2019re not having your best moment.&nbsp;And of course, as parents, we want to raise happy and emotionally healthy children.&nbsp;<strong>Many of us would rather our kids see us with our act together and keep the vulnerability behind closed doors<\/strong>. Problem is, it\u2019s not always a realistic plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news here is this works both ways!&nbsp;Our children are also watching when we recycle, ask questions about climate change, volunteer our time or share a kind word with a neighbour.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parent research shows modelling is an effective way to influence child behaviour and life choices.&nbsp;For example, it\u2019s believed the majority of students attending post-secondary had at least one parent who also pursued academics after high school. The same goes for eco-friendly habits. <strong>If a parent is an avid composter and let\u2019s say, a fan of green energy, it can impact a child\u2019s worldview.<\/strong>&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s also an opportunity to tap into the power of modelling when things go wrong.&nbsp;So what to do when you\u2019re grappling with an issue in real time with eyes on you?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A quick smile or a hug with \u201cI\u2019m a little rattled at the moment but I\u2019ve got this and I\u2019m working on a few things here. It\u2019s not about you and I\u2019ll be sure to ask for help if I need it.\u201d<\/li><li>If you make a mistake and maybe lose your cool, try a do-over.&nbsp;\u201cHey, I think I could have handled that better.&nbsp;I\u2019d like to try a \u201cdo-over\u201d and see if I can take another shot at this.\u201d<\/li><li>Getting some space can do wonders. It\u2019s not always possible but even saying \u201cI\u2019m going to take a moment to regroup. I\u2019ll be right back,\u201d can be a good place to start.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Parenting is all about practice. Life is full of curveballs and we can\u2019t hide them all from our children.&nbsp;<strong>Sharing vulnerability with as much confidence as we can muster goes a long way in teaching our kids it\u2019s okay to thrive and stumble.<\/strong>&nbsp;Whether you suggest cleaning up the local park as a family or asking for a quick \u201cdo-over\u201d when you make a parent misstep, both are opportunities to model an authentic effort at trying our best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve got to come clean. When I received the news I was losing my job, I sort of freaked out. It wasn\u2019t a huge, messy scene but I would have liked time to regain my composure. The email about funding cuts came in while I was tapping away on my computer in my remote work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129022,"featured_media":594384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1373],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-594223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-parenting-blog"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594388,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594223\/revisions\/594388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}