I Told You So!

In my last blog, I hinted at the fact that my parents played a role (in my opinion, a fairly significant one) in helping me stay away from drugs and driving me to lead what I find to be a mostly healthy lifestyle. Interestingly, right after I wrote that blog, I went on to read the last chapter of Freakonomics which discusses the role of parents in a child's education. In this section, Levitt uses statistical data to demonstrate the influence (or lack thereof) of parents on the academic education of their children. Not to my surprise, he concludes (and the data supports his hypothesis) that it is not what parents DO, but more of what they ARE, that affects the child. This must be quite annoying and shocking to most obsessive parents, but I'm so pleased with this finding. My dad always used to say: before you have kids, make sure you first train yourself to behave! I never really understood what this meant, until I got a bit older and discovered the beauty of this advice. I have now watched many children and I can admittedly, without a doubt, and with almost 100% accuracy, make an observation about the parents (even if I don't know them) simply by observing the children's behavior. Children really are a mirror and they mirror the parents' behaviors. So, no wonder Levitt says, it's what the parents are that affects the child's education...not what they do!

Many of you may question the relevance of this last paragraph to your own lives. Perhaps you don't have children; maybe you don't even plan on ever having a family; then, how would any of this apply to you? I don't have kids and don't plan on having them (although I don't have an aversion for them either!), but I was certainly affected by the scientific data above. What this suggests to me is that my behavior has the potential to affect the people around me: whether it affects my 1.5 year-old nephew or the 13 year-old I mentor, or the 25 year-old I work with, or my peers, or my 45 year-old boss, is irrelevant. The point is, my behavior--positive or negative--could potentially change the next person with whom I come into contact. How phenomenal would it be to leave a positive impression on my surroundings? How rewarding would it be?!