The Unconscious Impact On Young Minds

I had the most emotional conversation yesterday, and as I didn’t plan on crying, at the end, I couldn’t help myself. I was talking to my cousin, and then I asked her daughter, my niece, what she wanted to be in the future. Honestly, I was expecting the regular doctor, pilot, and the others. But she went like, “I want to be like you when I grow up.” So I asked her mom if she told her about my profession, and then I asked her if she knew what I do. And she said, “You make me and people happy.”

In the beginning I laughed because I thought she was being a kid, but after asking her what she meant, she said, “I give her food and candies, and I also take care of her when her mom is busy which makes her mom happy. So she also wants to make people happy when she grows up.”

Now let me give you a quick backstory. Anytime there’s an external family event, I’m always in charge of the kids. I don’t even know why they put me in charge of these little champions because they always end up getting their way with me. I mean, come on, you are telling me not to mind my niece after making that sad expression with her cute face? Baby girl, take all the candies you want.

Most of the time, by the time the event ends and we’re all departing to our various destinations, they never want me to leave. And just until yesterday, I thought it was just nothing until those words came from my niece’s mouth. Just a 6-year-old little girl.

I know one of the easiest yet most difficult people to impact are kids. Easiest yet difficult because they actually catch on to things really quickly but also have a really short attention span. I’ve heard countless times that whenever you are doing something bad, make sure a kid is not around. And this is because she/he will pick it up without even knowing it is bad. But I’ve never actually seen it happening until yesterday.

It dawned on me that so all my nieces and nephews see what I do for them. And to them, it's an "okay" thing to do to other people. My mom, who is an early childhood teacher, says kids have this theory that the moment something was done by an adult, it’s absolutely okay and they can do it too. And that reminded me of this kid who said she wanted to be a liar in the future because his dad always lies to his mom.

Back to the conversation with my baby girl, yeah? So as I listened to my girl talk for minutes, I realized that just as she thinks it’s okay to care for people because she saw me doing it, she definitely would have also thought it was okay to do any other bad thing if she saw me doing it.

It’s very beautiful yet complicated how the world of children works. The whole point I’m trying to make is that parents are not the only ones who bring up a child. We have family, school, and society, which are made up of you and me and other groups too. And it’s just sad how we as a society are very unconscious of the kind of impact we have on kids, but the moment a kid goes wayward, we are quick to criticize thoroughly.

I just want to say you never know which child might see you out there, and you never know what they’ll take home from you. So let’s all endeavor to show love, be kind, and exhibit the purest form of humanity.