Ms. Elizabeth Foss, writing in the Arlington Catholic Herald, reminds us how much of themselves, of who they are, children get from their parents.[1] This is not only true of her example, the way we talk to children and what we refer to them as, but also of the way they see us act in general. Do they see us going to Mass each week? Do they see us volunteering? Do we eat together as a family, do we clean up and stay organized?
Not that I think that every aspect of a child's personality is derived from his or her parents, to think so would be to attempt to blame all my own faults on my parents. Which is far from being my attempt. Yet I hear time and time again from source after source that parents are their children's first and most important teachers. And I know from my own life the impact my parents have had in shaping me, the way they are responsible for much of what good there is in me. So I cannot but think that Ms. Foss's ideas must extend further than she has taken them.
[1] Foss, Elizabeth. "Let Me Call Her Sweetheart" Arlington Catholic Herald (On-line) 2005-07-14 http://www.catholicherald.com/foss/05ef/ef050714.htm