John Bradshaw Quotes

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

My theory is children don't do what you tell them to do, they do what you do. You have to always do the right thing because they follow you.

We are apt to forget that children watch examples better than they listen to preaching.

Kids learn more from example than from anything you say; I'm convinced they learn very early not to hear anything you say, but to watch what you do.

If you're asking your kids to exercise, then you better do it, too. Practice what you preach.

A kid never listens to what his parents tell him to do. The parents actually act as an example of what their kids themselves do.

Kids are great imitators. Give them something great to imitate.

Habits are learned. And children learn their habits by watching what we do, not by listening to what we say. So we have to stop talking and teaching and preaching and just go do.

I never asked my children to do something I didn't show them that I could also do.

I read somewhere that your voice towards your children becomes their inner monologue. That was so interesting to me, and I think that pertains to 'Better Things' as well.

Setting a good example for your children does nothing but increase their embarrassment.

Children are more influenced by sermons you act than by sermons you preach.

The way I see it, we teach our children through modeling.

A lot of things I try to instill in my children comes off of what I've learned from my parents. First of all, you have to lead by example. You can't say one thing and behave another way. Kids learn more from watching you in life than what you say to them. So I try to be the best example I can be to them.

Whatever the parents are doing, the kids will follow suit.

What we are teaches the child far more than what we say, so we must be what we want our children to become.

But an adult if he is to provide proper guidance, must always be calm and act slowly so that the child who is watching him can clearly see his actions in all their particulars.

We fail our children if we say, 'Don't do as I do, but do as I say'.

Ultimately, my daughter is not going to learn from what I do, not from what I say. For better or for worse. I see that everyday.

If what you preach and what you do are inconsistent, your children will spot hypocrisy faster than anybody and do the opposite.

A fig-tree looking on a fig-tree becometh fruitful," says the Arabian proverb. And so it is with children; their first great instructor is example.

The attitude you have as a parent is what your kids will learn from more than what you tell them. They don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.

Parents teach children discipline for two different, indeed diametrically opposed, reasons: to render the child submissive to them and to make him independent of them. Only a self-disciplined person can be obedient; and only such a person can be autonomous.

Instruction, and advice, and commands will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel... Think not your children will practise what they do not see you do. You are their model picture, and they will copy what you are... will seldom learn habits which they see you despise, or walk in paths in which you do not walk yourself.

Children pay more attention to what you do than to what you say.