Friday, March 17, 2006

A Parent's Influence on Teenagers

Interesting statistic: 93% of kids say that parents are the most influential person in their lives, according to Dr. Russ Quaglia, of Executive Director of The Global Institute for Student Aspirations at Endicott College, Beverly, MA. Only 32% of parents think that they are the most influential person in a teen's life (research on 6-12 graders).

I was very surprised! It seems that once children reach their teen years that they don't listen to their parents or want to have much to do with them. But the numbers say that most kids value theirs parent's input, aprroval, etc.

What does that mean for parents? It means that your kids are watching you and listening to you far more than you imagine. We must be diligent to live what we say and to let kids know what is valuable in life.

Where parents do too much for their children, the children will not do much for themselves.
Elbert Hubbard
American editor, publisher and writer, 1856-1915