Manners - Bad AND Good

"Children are natural mimics -- they act like their parents in spite of every attempt to teach them good manners."

I catch myself saying things that wouldn't normally be offensive but when those same things come out of the mouth of a three year old they're a reflection on my behavior - "That stupid idiot!" or "Stupid dog!" And I'm constantly trying to clean up my act in the things I say and do. Because obviously if I tell Archer to say please but he never hears me say it, he'll think its not really required in life.

But what really makes me feel good is when I see him mimicing compassionate or empathetic behavior. When I'm sad and he comes to me and rubs my back and says, "Its ok Mama, I love you." Or when Shelly's crying and he said to her, "We're here Shelly, don't worry." I'm so proud of him. Even if he doesn't always completely understand what empathy is, he's modeling the behavior and I think through acting this way he will learn to feel sympathetic inside.

When he says things it causes me to reflect back on where he may have heard those things, and I tend to be critical of myself for the negative things that Archer says, but I also feel good that I'm having a positive influence on him as well. And maybe good parenting isn't about being a perfect role model, maybe its about making sure that your good habits outweigh your bad ones, so even if they pick up on the bad stuff, there's more of the good stuff to go around.