Trusting parents can be hazardous to your health.

Children are influenced and shaped by their environment. Ask a hungry child what he/she thinks the future is like, and he/she will tell you that the future is one where no one is hungry.

Ask a child from the war-torn countries on what he/she thinks the future is like, and he/she will tell you that the future is one where everyone is at peace and that there are no wars.

And the environment which affects the child, also includes the parents. They probably have the most effect on the child's character and upbringing. Most of the time, the child will watch and learn the parents' actions and behaviour. Whether the child follows the parents, is entirely up to the child and his environment.

The father might be petty, short-tempered, uncouth and rude. A strict disciplinarian with no words of encouragment. And yet he expects the child to be otherwise? To be considerate and generous in nature?

The mother might be fat, calculative and loud. And yet she expects the child to be fit, polite and magnanimous?

Some children will watch and resolve not to follow the parents. They will strive to be different, but yet keep the good points. When they have kids, they want to be different from their parents. They will want to encourage their kids and show them a good example, so that their kids will follow in their footsteps.

On the other hand, some children might not be able to know the difference between good and bad, and simply follow whatever the parents are doing. Thus the vicious cycle begins, until a member of the family is able to break the pattern. In such a scenario, one can only hope that the cycle will not last long.

All of us are children. All of us have parents (unless of course you believe you're God, in which case, i have no idea why you're reading this and i suggest you seek help fast. >.<). When we have kids, we want to do well by them. We want to show them the correct path to take. We want to show them a good example.

How our children will turn out, will simply show how good we are. Both as a person and as a parent.

Our children are the report cards of our lives.