More is Caught than Taught

Kids pick up a lot more information peripherally than is taught to them.  I’ve come to know this over the past couple of years since becoming a parent and I read about it in an informative email from one of my brothers about being a good father that he sent to me shortly after my daughter was born.  The line that stood out the most was more is caught than taught.

We witnessed a good example of this today that made us think about how our actions can have a huge effect on our kids’ lives.  This was my fault because I exposed our daughter to something on TV that no one should ever have to see and even more so, hear.

The grievous mistake took place yesterday because I wanted a break from the likes of Go, Diego, Go!  and The Backyardigans.  I turned on a VH1 show about songs from the ’80’s and naively assumed that it would be acceptable entertainment for the kiddies.  The kids were playing with their toys so I thought that they wouldn’t pay attention much and besides that, they like music, even it’s from the ’80’s.

The problem came and went without me, the ever observant father, noticing a thing.  It stemmed from the show talking about the song “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie.  I wasn’t even paying attention during this excerpt, but obviously the three-year-old was.

My paternal incompetency reared its ugly head at the dinner table tonight when our daughter said something unexpected.

“Ice ice baby!  Ice ice baby!”  The words flew out of her mouth gleefully.  “Ice ice baby!”

It was like I was hit over the head with a memory stick.  They must have talked about and played some of Vanilla Ice’s song, Ice Ice Baby because of  the use of the music from Under Pressure and she was obviously listening.  It’s funny that she kept this song to herself for more than 24 hours because I’m lucky if I keep something to myself for more than ten minutes (I.E. this blog).