There I was sitting peacefully at the keyboard with the usual background noise of the TV and the kids playing in the other room. A familiar ‘jingle’ rings out from the TV as normal when I hear my nephew call out, “That’s Zales.” Finding the statement rather odd for an eight year old child to say while playing Transfomers I turn my attention to the TV. A holiday gift giving commercial for a jewelry store was playing. I hear a pair of footsteps come up behind me.

“See, I told you it was Zales.” spoken very matter-of-factly. I turn to look at my nephew and my daughter as they walk off back into the play room. Redirecting my attention once again to the TV I was able to catch the end of the commercial, and in fact it was a Zales commercial.

Sitting back down to the computer I think to myself, “Wow.” A commercial obviously targeted to the older community has seemingly left its mark upon our youth.

Isn’t it funny to think about just how much our children truly absorb and pick up from their environment? Here I was listening to background noise and lost in thought while the children hard at playing stopped to listen and confirm that this ‘jingle’ was in fact from the company that they thought it to be from. I wouldn’t have thought twice about the familiar musical notes coming from the TV but the younger generation did.

Have you ever thought about the many things that our children pick up from outside sources throughout their lives? Be it a musical ‘jingle’ from a commercial, a swear word from a television show, a reprimand from a neighbor, or something more cynical, our children are listening, absorbing every little stimulus in their life and inevitably learning from it. So now I ask you, who is really teaching our children? Is it us as parents or our society? How much of an impact do we leave on our children’s lives? How much should we leave? Is the occasional slip of the tongue teaching our children that it’s ok swear? Are we, as parents, taking responsibility for our own actions or are we teaching our kids to blame their mistakes on others?

They listen and watch everything that we do. We are their mentors, their teachers. I know I for one am not perfect by any means. And this experience is not going to make some life changing impact on me, however, it has made stop and think. I guess that’s a start, right?