Do You Feel Family Is the Most Important Influence on Their Children?

I have watched a movie which is called “The Dead Poets Society” recently. Roughly, it tells the story about the relationship between students and teachers as well as their parents. After watching this movie, it gave me an insight into the influences of family. How children are influenced by their parents often hinges significantly on what is termed parental style. Since family is the first school a child enters, parents are children’s primary role models, and they continue to influence a child into young adulthood in several ways.

Family has a huge influence on our learning gender roles, especially during the first few years of life as they are our first educators. It is safe to say that the character of a person is determined in his childhood, and it is the family helps to make that determination. Boys can quickly learn how to be “like a man”. They are usually encouraged to be independent and strong and to avoid being “mama’s boys”. Parents are more likely to buy them cars, trucks and building blocks. In most of time, boys are often dressed in blue. For example, when I was a child, my parents bought me a lot of blue clothes. Besides, mother are often less concerned about boys’ appearance too. However, girls can learn how to be “ladylike”. They are taught to be polite and gentle and being a pretty girl. They are very commonly dressed in pink, and mothers are usually concerned about how their daughters should look. As a result they may even learn that they must rely on their beauty rather than on their intelligence to achieve success.

It goes without saying that parents are our role models who teach us many behaviors. According to recent studies, parents always encourage us to do our best, to push ourselves, and improve ourselves by the process of modeling. Modeling refers to learning by watching the behavior of others and copying that behavior. It influences both positive and negative behavior. For example, children who are respectful to elderly people have probably seen their parents do things such as helping older people onto trains and buses. On the other hand, children whose parents are alcoholics are more likely than other children to become alcoholics themselves.

Furthermore, when a child becomes a young adult, the family still plays an important role for him. According to the movie, even though Neil is a high school student, he never gets an opportunity to make his own decision. For example, his parents help him decide what subjects he should take, and plan the rest