I recently tweeted out this classic commercial from 1967 to emphasize to parents the powerful influence they have on their kids lives has never changed. Take a moment to view this classic:
The modeling effect parents have on their kids may be even more powerful in today's world of social media, bullying and marijuana legalization. Working in a High School as an Anti-Bullying Specialist in NJ, I have certainly witnessed parents modeling poor behavior and low and behold, their kids are following suit. Not only are they modeling the poor behavior of parents, they feel justified in their actions and empowered because Mom and Dad feel the same way. I recently dealt with a situation in which a female high school student was upset that the boy she like started to date a friend of hers. She was angry at her friend because she told her friend she like this boy prior to them dating. In anger she posted a tweet on her feed in which she called her ex-friend a "whore" and to not trust her. This tweet received over 100 likes and over 40 retweets from other students in the school. When I addressed this situation and had the tweet taken down and consequences imposed, the mother of the student who published the tweet was indifferent and supported her child's actions. The mother made it clear to me that she told her daughter of her support and added the former friend "deserved what she got because she purposely stole the boy my daughter liked first." Really? It is not difficult to understand why her daughter posted this terrible tweet despite of being exposed to multiple school education programs regarding the appropriate use of social media and consequences for bullying. You have a powerful effect on your kids. The world needs better people. Raise one!
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