Imitation

Yesterday, for the first day of school, I enclosed a little origami bunny in E's lunch with a note saying "have a great day." A little Martha Stewart, I know, but apparently the bunny provided some inspiration. When I came downstairs this morning, there were enough bunnies on my island for every girl in her class (with a seagull for her teacher). She had written very thoughtful notes on every one.

These bunnies reminded me that even though my children have entered middle-to-late childhood, imitation is still very strong in their lives. When they were young, they learned just about everything through imitation. Now, by imitating us (their parents), they are learning more subtle things about daily life.

One very strong issue in our home is screen-time. We allow movies on the weekends and the only computer use is to email their relatives. One reason for this is because we want them to develop other interests and activities. Last spring N and I realized that we had our laptops in front of us quite often when the children were around. Of course, their desire to be on the computer rose. We quietly began to restrict our screen time to when they weren't around and things changed for the better in many ways. We became more active and creative which inspired our children.

The way we conduct our daily lives as parents has to be worthy of imitation by our children. We have to follow the rules too. I think I'll put a picture of one of these bunnies on my laptop--as my blog and screen time creeps into family time, maybe it will remind me that younger eyes are on me.