Ever typed ‘How to teach your child to’.... into Google, expecting to receive the golden answer?

Well, the answer is; How you live your life, is the biggest lesson you will teach your child.

No really, how you live your life, is the biggest lesson you will teach your child.

As we lead up to Father’s Day, various companies are beginning to launch their father-centric ad campaigns. Along with Uncle Ben’s, McDonald’s has been one of the recent companies to launch its campaign. McDonald’s has come under scrutiny after its recent ad, which features a boy learning about his dead father was described as insensitive. The ad is emotive and a number of people have voiced their concerns about it being upsetting to young viewers.

However, one thing the advert does illustrate really well is the child’s appetite to learn about his father and longing to be similar to him. Whether it’s looking through his possessions, trying on his glasses, or mimicking his interests. The advert poignantly documents the child’s interest, fascination, and curiosity in learning about their father. The child is searching for insight, mimicking and keen to find a similarity.

Despite its criticism, McDonald’s has identified the inner longing of most children, to know and be like their dad’s.

So, as dads what’s that mean for us? Ultimately, we’re role models. When it comes to interacting with our kids, our actions speak more than our words. We can often give ourselves exceptions, by communicating to our children ‘do what I say, rather than what I do”. However, kids often learn more from observing our behaviour, rather than listening to our words.

When educating our children, we can get consumed by gravitating to the traditional verbal exchange of information and measuring their learning, by viewing the change in them. However, what if how we live our life, is the biggest lesson we will teach our children? Where does the responsibility then sit, whose responsibility is it really to change?

A friend once told me “The benchmark of how a man will treat your daughter, will be guided by how you interact with your wife. You're demonstrating to your daughter a grid/framework of how to live and be loved”.

Naturally, we can all aspire for our children’s future to reflect better lives than our own. But what if we are primarily shaping theirs, by how we live today? Whether we like who we are or not, they will learn from the way we live our lives. What acts or omissions would we be prepared to confront in our own lives to benefit our children?

Like what you've read, leave your comments below. You may also like to read Why the gorilla guys? From forum's too short courses, if you're keen to learn the secrets of successful dads, register at thisdadcan.co.uk today.

Jon’s the father of two, married for seven years and the Founder & Director of This Dad Can.

He's passionate about health & sport, community action, and personal development. These passions have integrally influenced his character into the man he is today.

This Dad Can resources men, to be the dads they want to be. Covering topics such as happy parenting, communication, supporting mom and practical changes. From short courses to bespoke packages, dads can find us at thisdadcan.co.uk