Will Kids Imitate Adults Behaving Badly?

People who live in a haze of self-importance will do some truly shocking things in public purely out of feeling entitled.  And, as you may suspect if you have read my blog before, I have a story of such a self-important individual.

Unfortunately, the person I observed had a child with them.  That always makes it worse.  Whenever I see adults behaving badly, I glance around for children.  Will seeing adults behave poorly affect them?  Will it make them think being rude is ok?  I think I have an answer.

Choose Your Battles

This advice is common, I'll admit, and it takes practice to implement.  And by practice, I mean mistakes.  I think most adults in a position of authority can think of at least one time recently that they did not choose their battles wisely.  This is part of the balancing act of parenting or supervising children.

But I saw a truly awful example of a poor choice just recently.  At the end of the day on Friday, a teacher was leading a line of students toward a bus; a lone boy approached from the opposite direction, running.  The teacher called out, "Walk.  Walk.  Walk!"  but the boy, who may or may not have heard, kept running and only slowed down by the door of the bus.  At this point, the teacher, in a voice most would use to scold a dog, ordered the boy to turn around, walk back to where he was, and then walk to his bus.