After a particularly long and boring conversation/diatribe with my teen/at my teen about the value of a work ethic and the wasting of time watching television and playing on the computer,
I huffed away and turned on the television to watch my favorite show.  Duh, five minutes in I snapped the television off.
Ridiculous I thought, how is my son to believe a word I say when my actions are screaming otherwise?

And then I began to reminisce on the little nuggets of wisdom my parents had passed down to me.  It took about two seconds.
I couldn’t remember a thing my parents had ever said that I retained.  Not one, sorry mom.

I am however a product of their union and an odd mix of their character traits, mostly acquired through good habitual osmosis.

I saw my dad gambling every Friday night at the horse track.  I love to wager.  I saw my mom with the leaning tower of Pisa in book form next to her bed,
I now have my own tottering stack and a weekly rendezvous with the library.  My father was never late in his entire life and that includes the time he got into an accident
and the months he had cancer.  My motto is if you are not five minutes early you ARE late.  Both my parents were extremely hard workers and it is a trait I try to emulate.
My Dad smoked, so have I.  My Dad admired athletes, my Mom loved the arts; I to play basketball as much as I love to write.

So the next time you are hell bent on teaching your child something ; like say….the value of exercise, then shut your mouth pick up a ball and head to the courts,
it will be much more believable then a twenty minute rant on the health benefits of aerobic activity from a sedentary overweight parent.