There-was-a-lot-of-whatI recently read a fantastic interview with Richmond AFL footballer, Ivan Maric, who said of his upbringing, “There was a lot of what I call “invisible learning” through seeing my parents work really, really hard to pay our school fees and put food on the table.”

What a great phrase.  Invisible learning.

Every child does it.

You can tell your children about the value of hard work and discipline, but it’s how hard your kids see you work that matters.

You can tell them about how to treat others, but they are watching you and learning from how respectful you actually are with the people around you.

You can tell them about how to cope with pressure, but they will learn more from the strategies that they see you use when you’re feeling stressed.

You can tell them about reaching for their dreams and having fantastic jobs when they get older, but if they see you go to a dead-end job that you hate and hear you complaining about work without seeing you do anything to change it, they’ll see that as normal and will limit their aspirations.

You can tell them until you are blue in the face about principles that you want your kids to learn.

But, like it or not, they aren’t listening, they’re watching.

They’re invisibly learning.

Every single day.

From you.

It’s a massive responsibility and a massive opportunity.

So, let me ask you, what are your kids invisibly learning from you today?

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