The Guidebook

I was running errands the other day, and on my way from point A to point B, I drove past a church sign that caught my eye with the following message on it...

Parent's lives are a child's guidebook.

It hung in the back of my mind for the rest of the day.  It's funny to think that as adults we are guidebooks, when we look for physical ones to navigate us through parenthood and teaching.  It made me think of the old joke, "Where's the manual for this kid?"  When the manual seems to be us; children are a reflection of us.

I reflect on my behavior around my children every day, good and bad.  My life is made up of my actions and reactions, and my children repeat those actions accordingly, "trying them on" to see how they fit their lives.  I have seen it in classrooms as well.  Calmness reflecting calmness and chaos reflecting chaos.

Life is an echo. What you send out, comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you.  -Zig Ziglar

If we are the guidebooks, then maybe we hold the answers to our own questions about our children and our students....

• Their willingness to try
• The way they treat others
• How they try to communicate

What examples are they seeing from the most influential adults in their day to day lives?  If it's not direct communication and actions with them, they are still getting messages from our direct communication and actions with others.

Don't overlook "the guidebook" you carry every day, it's an important source to consider for the impact it may make on children.

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