Let's 'Walk the talk' for our children!

The best person in the world to recognize your hypocrisy is your child. They see through you like no one else does!
I love the ad above by 'The Hindu'. It defines the hypocrisy we live in. We tell our teenagers and youth to behave themselves while we are not able to set examples ourselves. The thing though is we cannot start setting and example only at an older age. The new generation is watching us, they are listening to us, they are observing us keenly and absorbing every ounces of what comes out of lips and hearts. DH always says - 'If we cannot walk the talk, our kids will be the ones who point it out to us first!'


So in house we try very hard to empathize with animals. DH is a big animal lover. We started with one dog and in a matter of a year, ended up with two dogs and a cat. I am not a big animal lover, but I will not tolerate abuse to them. DH gets very heart broken to see abused animals. OR so we both think.

Of the two of our little ones, Ziva is definitely taken up after her father for her love of animals. Isaac likes them. You can even say he loves them. But I think, like me he is not very attached to them. Ziva on the other hand, talks them, hugs them, kisses them and occasionally pulls their tail. Me: Ziva, Pavam Danny-baloo (names of our dogs) They will cry!
Ziva (petting them): Ooo Danny, its Ok!


We currently live in a community where were facing a monkey menace. Its so bad that they DH actually purchased a sling and kept it handy along with some stones to scare the monkeys away from drinking milk and eating our garden vegetables.
Ziva: Appa .. Pavaam monkeys! They will cry!
DH: No Ziva ... monkeys are bad! They are eating our vegetables
Ziva stared blankly at him.

And then again one day, we find Ziva looking at a cockroach.
Ziva: ' Oh! So cute this cockroach is!'
Me: STAMP
Ziva: Amma why did you do that! Pavam cockroach.
Me: Ziva cockroaches are bad ... they spread diseases.

A few days later we saw some sort of creepy-crawly on the road
Ziva: STAMP
Me: Ziva, how can you do that? It was not even hurting you.
Ziva: Staring blankly!
But this time I read her mind and if she could use the correct word she would say 'You HYPOCRITE!'

We live in a tough world and raising children in a world where so many emotion are floating is hard. I don't think our previous generation thought so much about hypocrisy. But as we raise this new generation, I constantly fear they will turn around and question our motives.