Kids are so inventive and innovative! As a mom, you know it of course. But there is another way to know as well. When? When you start looking for your stuff that's when. Your cell phone charger wire becomes the stethoscope, the house keys become keys to their cars( toy cars), their garbage truck becomes the vehicle in which they collect the garbage from the home, the soapbox in the bathroom becomes the ice cream truck in which they sell ice creams!
If you're still with me I could keep going. Your laptop is theirs of course. To do their "work". What work do you ask? Attend office video calls of course. They have so many clients after all and so much work to do. They wanna walk in your shoes (literally!) and figuratively.
Not a day passes by that they don't try to imitate their parents. My little one took to playing in the water because I love playing on the water. He always associated bath time with playtime. He would take his toy phone and walk around saying "OK, uh-huh, done,". If anyone wants to know how you talk over the phone. All they have to do is give them a toy phone(or an original one) and ask them to call whom they want. Hopefully, you've been decent and professional on the phone!
And of course, being a boy he wants to shave at 4 even when there isn't anything to shave! You would think he would leave your clothes and stuff alone, but no! You are busy with some chores and it's quiet for a while, so you just instinctively know that something is up. What's the little one up to now! You search all rooms and you find him admiring himself in the mirror, your favourite red shade of lipstick smeared all over not just his forehead, but the walls as well. Well, it's the child's very first wall painting you console yourself ruefully. And who knows maybe, later on, he will start loving painting. And what better hobby than that, eh! If you have a whole bookshelf full of books, he wants to read-only yours despite having his own set of books. And more importantly, he doesn't know how to read! Dad's specs, mom's sandals, mom's makeup kit and comb, laptop, dad's spectacles and razor, dad's shoes, parents' books, car keys...there's nothing he hasn't tried to make his own!
Children imitating you, modelling your behaviour is not such a bad thing! As a matter of fact, anytime your child does something bad, the first thought that comes to your mind is "Did he pick it up from me?". So if you know your child is modelling your behaviour, the best thing you can do is model the behaviours you expect of your children rather than just telling them that doing it is good for them.
Whatever values good habits, values, knowledge, skills and behaviours you want your child to imbibe, would it be great if he got it all from you by observing you?
There will be inconsistencies in the behaviour of course. It's inventive. As parents, we don't want our kids to make the same mistakes. But don't worry, you're not the models in your child's life. As he grows older, he will start learning from his environment, his school, his teachers, friends, and other relatives. The best we can do to reduce the effect or negative impact is to model what we expect from the kid. That makes it easier on you as parents and on the kid as well, don't you agree? Let us know your thoughts on the kind of change or transformative you got from your kid by modelling the behaviour yourself!
