“Like mother like daughter, like father like son.”
This is a quote I heard while growing up. Not necessarily refering to a genetic link, children adopt traits from parents because they look up to them as role models. And whatever parents tell or allow them to do, children think it’s correct. Wrong.
Just look at how some parents and children behave when they enter the MTR trains. These parents seem oblivious to the fact that they need to educate their kids on how to be polite and considerate young citizens as they start to blend with society. They are the parents who encourage their kids — taking advantage of their playful nature — to rush inside the train and occupy multiple seats for themselves and their parents, effectively blocking other adults including the elderly and disabled.
They are the parents who tolerate children eating, drinking and behaving as if the train seats is the cozy sofa back home. That leaves us passengers shocked, but like many others we simply ignore these day-to-day observations, making these families think what they’re doing is fine.
When these kids grow up, they could become impolite, inconsiderate members of the society, influenced by their childhood exposure. And they don’t only bother their immediate family members. Their self-centered behavior could possibly annoy us. They could speak loudly on the phone, refuse to open the mall doors for us if our hands can’t do so, or destroy public property.
These parents aren’t doing their children a favor; years later, their kids realize the mistake. Not that I would expect children to dump their parents to an elderly home as a form of reprisal. What goes around, comes around. Bad parenting may eventually haunt bad parents later.
As a result of our indifference, our society isn’t as ideal as we dreamed it to be.
