Tag: influence

It’s hard to understand how parent influence really works. But your words and actions have a serious impact on your children.

Even saying, “I haven’t done math in 15 years,” sends a decisive message to your kids: “I don’t need math as a grownup, and neither will you.”

Kids want to do what you do.

Here’s how powerful parent influence can be…

K8 and I were getting ready for bed yesterday. I started taking off my eye makeup. She wanted to do it too.

So I got out a cotton round for her and put a little makeup remover on it. She wiped her eye and was immediately annoyed.

“I want brown!” she whined.

My cotton round was full of removed makeup. Hers was white. She wanted to be like me.

So I put a dab of liquid eyeliner on each of her lids. When she wiped it off, she had some “brown” on her cotton round too.

Parent Influence is crazy powerful.

How nuts that she wanted to have dirty eyes so she could clean them. It makes no logical sense.

And that’s why your positive math talk is so important. Parent influence is the first and most impactful influence in your child’s life.

As early as three years old (as K8 showed), they want to do everything exactly like you are doing. Exactly!

So if you say you’re not good at math, they want to be not good at math too.

So turn it around — be positive.

Since parent influence has that kind of impact, make sure to keep it positive. Learn how to quit saying negative things about math.

Have questions or suggestions on doing it? Leave them in the comments. And share this on twitter too!

You might also like:

• How to Quit Saying “I Hate Math”
• Why Grown-ups Should Shut Their Traps about Hating Math
• Do Parents See the Math Monster? Or Just Think It’s There?
• How to Get People to Stop Saying “I Hate Math”