To loosely paraphrase the sage lyrics of Hall and Oates remember, “Your
Child’s eyes, they’re watching you, they see your every move, your child’s eyes, they’re watching you, your child’s eyes, they’re watching
you watching you watching you watching you.”
I’ve written before how easy it is for adults to forget the two-ply super absorbent fluid locking surveillance sponges children can be when it comes to every dribbled vulgarity, every unconsciously uttered impropriety, every sassa-frassin' racka-frackin' carrot-chewin' fur-bearin' varmint outburst we take for granted, every breath we take, and every move we make because even when you think they won't be, oh they'll be watching you.
Sometimes the reminders are humorous as when your son toddles around the living room with your cell phone pressing the buttons with almost inherent thumb dexterity then placing it to the back of his head saying something that sounds like “Ehhhh?” but in 14-month-old-speak means, “Talk to me.” Yet sometimes what our children learn by watching us and their subsequent mimicry is far more troubling and unsettling.
The “what children see is what children will do” sermon is not a soap box I regularly stand on, but I stumbled across a video this afternoon that gave me chills from NAPCAN's latest campaign for a Child Friendly Australia called coincidentally enough “Children See, Children Do”.
Michael Little at Prevention Action said, “Children See, Children Do shows children shadowing and mimicking parents, talking on the phone, getting impatient while waiting for a train, smoking, exploding with rage, and so on – all to shed light on the aberrations of adult behavior when seen through children's impressionable eyes.”
Trust me, this video is worth the watch.
