The Prestige of Modeling… Off the Runway
Glitz. Glamour. Galore. In a whole different way
I really wish we would stop writing about Will Smith. Not because what he did was not wrong or inappropriate. Rather quite the opposite. It was inappropriate. But does it better us to rehash it over, and over?
And more importantly does it benefit our kids?
So why do we keep giving so much time, so much energy, so much attention to something we would rather not see our kids copy?
Why are we not rather giving that same time and effort and energy to things that we would like to see our kids do? Take on? Achieve?
I looked up the word model and sadly the first thing I found was
A model is a person with a role either to promote, display or advertise commercial products or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Though models are predominantly female, there are also male models, especially to model clothing
But modeling doesn’t just happen when some good-looking guy or girl works their magic and impresses (or shocks) on the runway, or in a photograph. Modeling happens in a much more real way every day all day in our children’s lives when we promote and advertise morals, ideas, ideals, standards, and life expectations; and we can do much better. We can do better at modeling the actions, the life skills, and the morals needed in helping them grow into happy, fulfilled, healthy adults if we focus on finding them great models to emulate.
Being a role model is the most powerful form of education ~John Wooden
Instead of constantly finding the negative in the world and pointing it out and saying don’t do this and don’t do that we should be showing them the beautiful things and saying do more of this and do more of that.
Children grow up in whichever experience we give them so can we not just give them more of what we would like to see?
Yes, there will always be both, but if we want to help our children grow into happy healthy individuals, we need to start finding them models that we do want them to look up to, and we need to stop pointing out what we don’t want them to do and the models not to exemplify.
Have you ever seen what happens when you put a child in an environment with their friends (or kids they don’t know) who are using bad words? Perhaps you have told little Jessie a million times that swearing is not polite and pointed out kids who swear and how inappropriate that is, but little Jessie starts using inappropriate language at home.
Now instead of telling little Jessie that they shouldn’t be swearing and instead of showing them situations where others are swearing and telling them how inappropriate it is you put them in situations where behavior you deem appropriate is modeled.
What would happen if little Jessie was put in an environment where the other kids chose to share affirmations with one another? What would happen if you put little Jessie in a room where the kids said, “thank you” and shared with their kind words when they were hurt, or sad, or upset.
Little Jessie wouldn’t need to be reminded not to swear because that is not the behavior they would come up against throughout the day and it would not be at the forefront of their thoughts to be emulated.
Of course, we don’t live in a bubble and kids will encounter all sorts of behaviors that are both appropriate and inappropriate on a daily basis and they need to learn to navigate the world of both, but my question is why must we constantly ventilate the inappropriate behaviors?
Because we do ventilate the negative as we freely circulate the constant negativity through news, movies, and through highlighting the negative actions of others.
Can’t we circulate positivity instead?
Do we want the negativity to constantly sit in the room with our kids? Filling their heads and their thoughts with the things we would rather they not participate in?
Doesn’t it make more sense to ventilate the room with ideas and modeling that is positive, light, and joyful and that we would rather our children emulate and have that be at the forefront of their thought.
There is a great deal of prestige in modeling and a great deal of fulfillment. It is the cornerstone of how we have learned through time, and I just hope that we can start modeling for our children in ways that make us proud not just our own actions but the actions we show in others.
And hopefully we can make those actions go viral instead.
