Rwar.
You know the sound. It’s that little growl that lion cubs make. It’s not quite a roar, but, shame, at least they’re trying. Well, my child is a lion cub, it seems.
It started this week when I made some weird growling noise at her while we were playing. I don’t know why, I just did; Parents do weird things to entertain their children. Anyway. I growled. Alice looked at me and giggled. So I did it again. This time, though, she didn’t giggle - she growled. Well, rawr’ed. Shame, she tried. It was exceptionally cute.
It got me thinking, though. Because if she’s copying me when I growl, what else is she copying? Damn. This is a big deal.
If she copies my growl, does that mean she’ll copy me when I swear? When I shout at our dogs? When I moan about work? Woah. What about when I talk bad about people, or gossip? This. Is. Not. Good.
Yeah, at 11-months, Alice isn’t going to be sprouting sentences and revealing all my secrets - but she’s starting to get there.
“Children between the ages of 1-2 years should be echoing or imitating you a lot. That’s how they are learning.” Speech and Language Kids
Soon, she’ll be doing what I’m doing and saying what I’m saying. That is a huge responsibility for me as a dad. I don’t want her learning my bad habits, I don’t want her saying many of the things I say [swearing, especially] and doing some of the things I do. Her mind is fertile soil, and the right stuff needs be to planted in there [sorry for the really terrible analogy, but it fits].
Kids copy things, and I guess I need to start being careful about what I say around her.
Ps. I know I’ve been away for a while. Various work pressures kicked in as the year wound down. But I’m back!
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