What Are You Teaching Your Children?

I see it way too often. A parent with children at a marked crosswalk with walk/don't walk signals, ignores the signals and crosses the street with the children when the light says don't walk.

This may seem like a small thing to some, but I have observed children closely for most of my life. The children see what the adults are doing and are able to see that the adults feel it is fine to ignore the crosswalk lights. Every time a child sees an adult ignore the law, even one like street crossing, they see the hypocrisy in the adult.

Crossing outside of crosswalks falls into the same category, but could have even greater consequences. When crossing outside of crosswalks pedestrians must yield to automobile traffic, but cars and trucks are not always expecting pedestrians to cross outside of crosswalks, say in mid-block. If children are not being taught the necessary skills for crossing mid-block, they may think that the cars are supposed to stop for them there. Many local jurisdictions have enacted laws which prohibit jaywalking, but it is not defined in Oregon state law. Way too often I have seen folks crossing with children in mid-block expecting cars and trucks to stop. Children will clearly get the wrong impression.

Every time one crosses the street with or near children, a teaching opportunity is available. Please don't leave it to just the schools to teach the children.

We all have a responsibility to be the best teachers we can be at all times.

​Please be a great teacher of children and set a great example when crossing the street. The children are watching you.

This is obvious, but it needs to be mentioned.

The only thing that tobacco use does is put money in the pockets of people who could make money in a way that does not prey on an addiction while causing untold grief to individuals, families, businesses, and communities. It does nothing good for society or individuals.

The tobacco companies have other businesses from which they can and do make money. The farmers who grow tobacco could grow food crops to feed those who need food. The government of the United States should not subsidize the growth of a product that costs billions in health care and lost productivity due to tobacco users being generally less healthy than the rest of the population.

That said, this blog is about children and their learning from adults. We can say all we want that children should do as they are told not as they see, but children are much smarter than that. The evidence is all around the children that smoking and other tobacco use is bad for the health of the users and those around them. For reference to research on tobacco use, please refer to this well-annotated Wikipedia article.

To teach children the right lesson, tobacco users should be doing everything they can to stop the addiction to nicotine that such use satisfies. Families should be doing everything they can to assist family members with a nicotine addiction. Our government and employers should be providing assistance for tobacco users to stop. Many such programs are available, but more are needed.

Don't try to fool your children, they are much too smart for that. Tobacco use does not have a good outcome.

Let's teach our children the right lesson and work to eradicate the health hazard that tobacco consumption in all its forms has become.