Kids Will Be Kids

The saying “lead by example” speaks volumes to many stages of our lives, particularly in raising children; for they do not know better- or worse. Parents influence their kids in many ways, children can inherit their parents character traits, and the ways parents talk and act can further influence their child in how they think and act in later years.
“Kids will be kids” and “boys will be boys” can influence their way of thinking as well. Kids will be kids if they pour all the toothpaste in the sink or if they cut their own hair. It’s your child getting into your lipstick and putting it on the dog. That is kids will be kids. However, if you use the term “kids will be kids” to justify your child using homophobic, misogynistic, or racist slurs.

Children are very open-minded towards some topics that adults have trouble accepting or even thinking about. Before peoples’ conflicting beliefs are thrust upon them, they are open-minded towards the sensitive topics of today- such as gay marriage- but once that influence is there, what they see or hear can impact how they look at these previously okay subjects. It can be quite biased- as they might only see or hear from their parents’ views- and closing that open mind they once possessed, in turn, it now slips through their fingers like sand. The good news? You can influence your child positively as well. My mother treated disabled children and adults with the same respect as she did with non-disabled people, my brother and I saw her do this at least once every day at the bus stop. This has gone on for as long as I can remember, and one day my brother and I did the same thing at the bus stop. Later we asked her (about a year from when I remember her first doing this, around when I was six) why she always spoke to them the same way she would others. She told us that we should always treat special needs kids the same way we would treat any other person, she said that they were no different than us so we should treat them no different. To this day and for my foreseeable future I will continue doing just that. Children’s