Monkey See, Monkey Do

I was giving him what for. He was 5 years old and should have known better. I didn’t have time to deal with such childishness. Next time he had better think before he pulled some crazy stunt like that again.

My finger was wagging as fast as my tongue. I was on a roll giving this little blond-haired, blue eyed bundle of mischief a piece of my mind.

And that’s when I looked down.

Standing right in front of me, so close she was on my toes, was my 2 year old daughter, wagging her little finger and mouthing my words right after me. She put her hands on her hips, she leaned in toward her brother and she let him have it.

I began to reprimand her for being mean to her brother when I realized she wasn’t being mean…she was being ME!

It’s a strange phenomena. These little people with whom we reside day in and day out quite often sound just like us. And usually what they say and do is the “us” we aren’t all that fond of.

When they are little, it is cute and funny {sometimes}, but as our children grow, they catch more of the things we’d rather they didn’t catch. This can be a sobering lesson. One you must be willing to learn.

Several years back I read The Heart of Anger by Lou Priolo. The very first thing he does when he has an angry child come into his office is to interview the child’s parents. He asks them to take a hard look at themselves. Did the anger start with them? Quite often the Lord uses our children to reflect (and amplify) our own less-than-desirable behaviors.

Maybe it’s not an angry child you are dealing with…maybe it is an apathetic or lazy or complaining child. Not that every personality trait we see in our children is something we’ve directly contributed to…they ARE unique individuals…but it merits serious reflection on our own attitudes and behaviors.

Monkey see, monkey do…whether we like it or not.

To read more from Amy (including a smattering of monkey business),
you can visit Amy’s blog at www.raisingarrows.net.

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About The Author

Amy has written 14 articles on this blog.

Amy is the homeschooling mother of soon-to-be 6 living children and a precious little girl named Emily in Heaven. You can find Amy blogging about the joy and grief of raising these wonderful little arrows at Raising Arrows.

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