Common values, inherited
Do you think when a child is born, she immediately knows right from wrong? Experts have been trying to program babies using a variety of languages like Basic, Cobol, and more recently Python, but to no real success - for Python, it's because it is dangerous having snakes around children.
Their properties are inherited - like Object-Oriented methodology from the 90s? In a way, it is. There are parent and child classes and inheritance is a key feature. Some are indeed coded (i.e. through DNA), but others do not need any kind of instructions, but happen using observation, practices, and handed-down traditions.
For example:
- Being friendly and kind to others. Humans are social creatures - but not necessarily sociable. When the need for survival doesn't depend on it, we can get by without talking to others, smiling, or just saying a greeting. Kids pick up on this based on their parent's behaviour towards their neighbours and people they meet outside and end up developing similar friendly or unfriendly traits.
- Being active and having regular exercise is good for you. But if your parents are always sitting in front of the TV or lying on the couch, then chances are you would probably find that the normal thing to do.
- Work-ethic is also easily picked up. Especially during this work-from-home time where your office-habits are on full display instead of hidden away behind the desk of a distant commercial building. Do you spend lots of time staring at Facebook instead of working on emails, documents, or on "serious-sounding" conference calls? Do you wake up late instead of making it a point to demonstrate that the morning is the best time to get important work done?
So, be aware that habits, ideas, and values are passed down not only by word but more likely by example. If you want your children to grow up being the adults you want them to be, then you have to start being the adults you want them to be right now, especially when they are watching - which is all the time!