You are who your parents shape you to be.
To a certain degree.
This hasn’t ever really struck true with me until today. Sure, I recognised I had certain attributes from both my parents and I fling the occasional, off-hand remark about how I’m “turning into my mother more and more these days…” but being in school has shown me just how much our parents have an effect on us.
Thomas is just like his father; quiet and studious with a mind to do well. Chloe is like her mother; fiery but loyal and older far beyond her years. And then there’s Claire, a product of the tempestuous household that’s all she’s known her young life. Her parents separated 5 years ago and she spends her week split between mum and dad. The constant change unsettles her and means that sometimes she has bad weeks and sometimes she has very bad weeks. She holds little respect for adults and you wonder if it’s because of her mother who quite happily storms into school to confront teachers or because of her father; a man who holds no bones about yelling at his ex-wife in the school playground. Or maybe, it’s both.
It wakes you up to the importance of a stable home and how lucky are those who have one of those their entire childhood lives. Of course, it doesn’t mean all single parent homes have the same effect on their children but it adds to “it all.”
And that’s what makes supply teaching a little bit of a challenge. Usually, you’re only in for a day perhaps two and you don’t get to know the children. You don’t get to learn about their habits; what makes them them. You aren’t made aware of family issues are home and if you are, it’s never the whole story. You don’t get to understand the children. You’ll get it wrong and you’ll feel like a monster but life isn’t fair, so the sooner you get to realise this, the better.
I still believe that children are just the way they are though…
Listening to: Coldplay – High Speed
Wise words.
I wonder if you can prevent it with a conscious effort? Or are your own children doomed or blessed from the start, or will you try so hard to shape them they end up as something else entirely.
I imagine you can probably prevent it to some extent. And in some cases, children will go out of their way to be nothing like their parents. Sometimes, circumstances dictate…the age old debate of nature vs nurture.