What are you communicating to your children? Read this poem:

‘The Little Chap Who Follows Me’

A careful man I ought to be,
For a little fellow follows me;
I do not dare to go astray
For fear he’ll go the self-same way.

I must not madly step aside,
Where pleasure’s paths are smooth and wide,
And join in wine’s red revelry;
A little fellow follows me

I cannot once escape his eyes.
Whatever he sees me do, he tries.
Like me, he says he’s going to be;
That little chap who follows me.

He thinks that I am good and fine,
Believes in every word of mine;
The bad in me he must not see,
The little chap who follows me.

I must remember as I go,
Through summer sun and winter snow,
That I am building for the years to be;
A little fellow who follows me.

Anon