Children imitate what they have seen. Parents, keep an eye on them!

Published: August 5, 2022
Time: 11:43 AM
Article #: 174

"Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk."- Carl Jung.

I've been thinking to write a blog about this topic but since it is still giving me a lot of thoughts, I decided to push myself writing it na lang but since it is a confidential topic, I will not drop any names for security purposes and I will try to filter some words that might be not recommended to use in this platform.

Anyways, this topic is about parenting so if you are a parent or a guardian, I will appreciate any suggestions and advise on this topic.

So Nina, not her real name, is a close friend of mine. She also has an eleven-year-old daughter who enjoys playing online video games like Roblox. This eleven-year-old child also has a Tiktok at the same time. So one day Nina discovered her daughter doing an activity "down there" in herself. And because my friend concluded right away that her kid was doing 'that,' she became furious with her daughter and questioned her where she learnt that. Because her child is unaware of what she is actually doing, she just told her mother that someone had instructed her to do it.

And you know what's even more frightful? She was instructed to do it each time she gets an itching feeling down there by someone from the gaming app (we are still unsure if that person was her co-player or someone else).

When Nina found out that someone from the online game had told her daughter how to do it, she got mad at the child and broke the girl's phone. Nina revealed to me that her daughter stopped speaking to her after that incident.

When she informed me of this, I advised her to closely monitor her daughter's movements. In addition, I advised her to just attempt to talk with her daughter and be a good listener so that the youngster would actually understand something important at this early period of her adolescence. Thankfully, Nina assured me that she would do her absolute best to communicate with her child. Additionally, I advised her to see a psychologist in case her child needed counseling.

After hearing that narrative, I began to second-guess a lot of things, particularly when it came to having a child. I am constantly wondering what might happen because I also have a son who is eight years old. Children's personalities are greatly influenced by the internet and online games. We must also be conscious of the possibility that whatever they see online could have influence on them.

Some children also learn things quickly. They act out of what they see. Therefore, it is our responsibility as parents to ensure that our children spend enough time with us and are not overly engaged in digital. I also realized that at this early point, we must now try to communicate with them appropriately and effortlessly discuss these sensitive things.