Parents always wish that their children do well in life, cultivate good habits, and live a fruitful and safe life. They want their children to be a better version of themselves. The irony is that parents themselves play the most crucial role in their development. As children grow we can easily picture the parent in them. A child usually takes to many desirable as well as not so desirable habits from both the mother and father. It gets more difficult for the parent to stop the child from doing it. Lecturing, scolding or sometimes requesting the child to change are the alternatives left with the parents. We demand the very best from our own but forget these are the seeds that we have sown.

Parents have one more alternative that is to change their own habits. It is not difficult if one is motivated to do so. Motivation comes from the joy of giving good habits to your child. I too am a parent of a teenager and saw many habits that my daughter had picked up from me. I always had the laptop placed on my bed and did work either sitting or lying down. When I saw my daughter doing the same I stopped her but she never listened, then I decided to change and made efforts with my self first. A change in me brought about a change in her. If your child is lying down and studying, using bad language, always talking at a high pitch, breaking traffic rules, rash driving and more, it is important to reflect as parents and our influence on them. Thus goes the proverb “Practice before you Preach”.

– Dr. Nimrat Singh