The Dr. Chalmers Show Season #3, episode 20 - Be a role model for your kids.

I have enjoyed my relationship with my parents, and I am blessed to still work with my dad. We have a long, fruitful relationship, and that continues to mold how I parent my kids today.

In society today, there are too many influences that have a negative impact on your kid's development, both physically and mentally.

"So if you want them to learn to read, read, if you want them to sit around, watch TV all day, then sit around, watch TV all day. Just recognizing that most often, most likely, your children are going to mirror what you show them is important. So if you want them to find things important that are healthy, do some healthy things."

The following is an automated transcript and may be edited for grammar.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:03] One of the things that I talk to parents about all the time is you can't tell your children how to be. You have to show your children how to be. So if you want your kids to be healthy, you have to show them that you work out, eat right, sleep right, and do the things that are required to be healthy.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:25] You can't yellow your kids and be like, You guys should be healthy, you guys shouldn't smoke, and you smoke because you're teaching them that one, what you say is irrelevant and two that smoking is okay if you're like, Nope, I don't want my kids to smoke, then you shouldn't smoke. That's it because, again, kids learn from watching, not listening.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:46] So if you want your kids to be healthy, get healthy. If you want them to work out, work out. If you want them to take their supplements and eat right, you must do that. So these are the things when you start thinking about, you know, I hear people say, oh, I would die for my kids. Awesome! That's super easy; living for them is hard; show them the person you want to be.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:09] People ask me like, like, you must love working out a don't not my favorite thing. Half the time I go, I don't want to be there. I don't want to do it. And I bitch, and I complain to myself the entire time I'm there until I'm done.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:22] But my kids ask me, Will you teach me to work out? Hey, What supplements should I take for this or that? They're eight and ten. It's like they're 16 and trying to get better for their sports. They see me doing it, they see their mom doing it, and they understand that that's part of what's being healthy, that's part of the lifestyle if they want to be, you know, like mom and dad, they want to be like all of mom and dad's friends this is part of the thing that they need to do they see it regularly.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:51] Show your kids what you want them to Be, Be the man, Be the woman you want your kids to be. It's the only real way you can get there. You can teach them great things by doing them or you can teach them terrible things by doing them.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:03] Oftentimes, do you see from alcoholic parents is you see either alcoholic children or children who will never touch alcohol because they saw their parents doing it and they're like, absolutely not I don't want to be like my parents. Again those parents were showing their children how to be.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:21] So if you want to be healthy and you want your kids to be healthy, you have to show them you can't tell them. So that's where the hard thing about being a parent is that you're now the role model whether you wanted to be or not, you're it.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:35] So if you want them to learn to read, read, if you want them to sit around, watch TV all day, then sit around, watch TV all day. Just recognizing that most often, most likely, your children are going to mirror what you show them is important. So if you want them to find things important that are healthy, do some healthy things.