Role models

We all aspire to be like somebody we have seen, read or heard about. This is the person who shapes our lives to a large aspect. We want to dress, talk or even look like him. The most influential people in our early years as children are our parents, they are our role models and we want to imitate and always look up on them, but as we grow other people come into our lives, the parents no longer have that strong influence in our lives. It is at this point that we are being transformed to be people whom the society can look forward to take it to another level.

Parents should take every responsibility to ensure that children take up on people who are responsible. It is paramount for every parent to guide their children in choosing their role model. The best case scenario is where a child has his or her parents as the role models. Though this does not happen in many occasions, parents can try their best. As a child I always admired how my father treated my mother, they were and are still a lovely couple.

My father would bring gifts every evening, one for me and the other for my mother, he usually gave me my mother’s gift and said ‘give this gift to my most important woman in this world’ and I would gladly do it. I later came to realize that my father was not only doing this as a show of affection to my mother, but he was teaching me to respect women, something I keep up to this moment. The role models chosen by the children can tell so much about their past life, how they have related with their parents and other people around them.

Since parents have all the powers to shape their children in the early days they should ensure that they impact values that will always guide the children in making important decisions in their lives. They should always try to live by the code they prescribe to their children. It is from this point that the kids will copy what their parents are doing. I f the parents are good examples children will always like to imitate them. On the same note if the parents are ill behaved children will also be rebellious and may not follow what their parents teach them.

The kind of life the parents exposes their children to greatly determine the type of role models their kids will imitate. If the mother likes music, it is most likely that the child will look up to musicians as his or her role model. Social background also plays a great role on the child life, if they are brought up understanding that in life they have to struggle, most of them will look forward to hardworking people as their role model. On the other hand, those who are brought up believing otherwise will most likely look up to people who have gained material possession using dubious means.

When teaching children what to look for in a role model parents need to be realistic, they should not expect their children to look up to people who are way too high for them. This may cause some stress to the children, therefore affecting their lives. Their is no point for a parent to advise his or her kid to aspire to be a god yet in their lives they never came close to this. It is unfortunate that nowadays kids do not look up to their parents for guidance; there has been too much influence from the media such that children are taking on their role models from this source.

In most cases people of questionable character are ending up influencing the children. This partly explains the moral decadence with us in the modern times. If the parents want their children to lead a life they would like to be associated with, they must from the very beginning shape them in the right way, giving the right tips on what to look for in a role model and most importantly live by the code, be the person whom the child can look upon and aspire to be.