Practice What You Preach

With regards to kids now-a-days, I have one particularly bad habit: I don’t buckle my seatbelt immediately upon my rear hitting the car seat.

I suspect I’m not alone. I also suspect I’m not alone in getting the following question fairly regularly:

“Dad, why don’t you buckle your seatbelt?”

Now, to be fair to me, the question isn’t entirely fair. I almost always buckle up by the time the car is on the road. I just don’t do it right away. But the kids don’t always notice that. What they do notice is that Dad didn’t buckle in at the same time they did.

The lass put the question a little more directly to me today:

Lass: “Dad, when can I buckle in like you do?”

Me: “What do you mean?”

Lass: “You don’t always put on your seat belt when you get in the car.”

These little exchanges always remind of the one overt piece of advice my father gave me when our first was born He said “Remember, kids do as you do, not as you say.” In fact, I’d say that particular chestnut has been reinforced to me more than anything else where kids are concerned.