Copy Cats

Quit copying me.

The cry of every older sibling. Slightly beside and behind them is a smaller version of them, slyly watching every move. Arm goes up, throat clears, legs are crossed at the ankles, lean over just a bit on the arm of the couch.

Quit it!

What? I'm not doing anything. Head tilted a little, chin on hand.

It's funny when you're the younger one, which I was (am), but if you're the elder, it gets old pretty quick. The saying "Imitation is the highest form of flattery" is lost in translation. The desire for sicofantic followers goes away. The days of wishing you had a slave to order around are past.

It's just annoying. And fun, if you're the mimic-er. Not so much as the mimic-ee.

Now I'm a dad. Talk about living under a microscope. I've noticed my kids, especially Ethan, copy exactly what I do. He watches me walk, watches me eat, watches me play the Wii, watches me as I watch TV.

I was walking along side him outside one day, and spit. Guess what he did.

"Just had to spit, Dad? Me too."

He wants to be like me so bad. But there are things about me that I don't want him to be like.

Isn't that pretty much what we want from our kids? Everything good, nothing bad. I've even prayed that prayer. Lord, I pray that they get everything good from me and nothing bad. But the truth is that they get everything.

Everything. All of it, the good, the bad and the ugly. All of our inconsistencies, all of our moods, all of our hangups. As a parent, you basically have to raise them to be partly not you.

Better than you.

Words are lost, actions scream. They're copy cats, watching us. I can't tell my daughter to stop pointing out everyone's mistakes when I constantly correct her. I can't tell my son not to hit right after I smack him with a pillow. Think about it. It's so cute when your baby mimics you, your crazy faces, a little dance, but the second he makes a face and shows his food to the booth next to you at T.G.I. Friday's, you're horrified.

We celebrate when our kids are pottie training and they poop in the pottie with candy, balloons, sticker charts and prizes, but as soon as they get into school, "Poop" is a bad word.

In order for our kids to learn peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and the like it's not a matter of prayer.

It's a matter of living it ourselves, in front of them to see.