The Affect of Parents' Choices on Children

I'm a family studies major and to be honest I could go on all day about the topic of family. I'm just interested in how families work and what makes a successful family versus an unsuccessful family. The thing I want to focus on in this blog is the affect our parents' choices have on our choices. I think parents have a huge influence on our lives whether we want to admit it or not. Most of us don't really choose what religion or denomination we associate with. We just are what are parents are. The same goes for political affiliation and in some cases (especially in the state of Alabama) things like football. If you were to ask most football fans in Alabama, I would be willing to bet that the majority of them pull for the team they do because one or both of their parents raised them that way OR because their parents go for the rival and they wanted to be different. Our parents' affect our lives with their decisions before we are ever born. Our mothers can decide to smoke or hopefully not smoke while pregnant. They can swear off alcohol which ensures their child won't have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. There are so many decisions a mother makes while pregnant that will no doubt affect their child once he or she is born. Our parents influence our decisions greatly, sometimes without even knowing. A mother or father can tell their child something is bad for them all they want but if the child sees them doing it, it's hard for them to take their parent seriously. For example, most parents tell their kids early on that smoking is bad and they should never even try it; however, if that same parent is holding a cigarette in their hand while explaining how harmful smoking is, what good is being done? If a child is around someone who smokes their whole life, they are likely to just think it is normal and okay. I do think the opposite of this is also true, though. My grandfather smoked his whole life and eventually died of lung cancer. My mom always talks about how she hated smoking growing up because he would always smoke in their house. She says that when she went to school or when friends came over she would be self conscious because she always felt that she smelled like smoke. So my mom actually benefited in the long run from my grandfather smoking because it made her never want to try it. Basically, our parents don't really have an option. They influence us whether they want to or not. They need to remember that everything they do affects us in one way or another; but we also need to remember that nobody is perfect and everyone will eventually make a mistake or two. Most of us will be parents one day and we will hope for that same forgiveness and understanding.

2011. Bird. How Do Parents' Lifestyles Affect Their Children? Livestrong.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/501079-how-do-parents-lifestyles-affect-their-children/