Monday, September 19, 2005

He always copies me

Over the summer, I noticed that Reggie had taken the habit of putting his right hand inside his jeans pocket. There was this one instance when my three boys and I were waiting for the bus. There stood Reggie with his hand in his pocket. Behind him was Ryan, his hand in his pocket as well. And behind Ryan was Ryland doing the same thing. I couldn’t help but smile. It was a indeed a Kodak moment and I was tempted to take a snapshot but there were other people at the bus stop and I didn’t want to embarrass the boys.

My two younger boys tend to copy their older brother/s.

Here’s another instance.

At snack time on Sunday afternoon, Ryan was eating one of Ronald’s Nature Valley Honey ‘N’ Oats granola bar.

“What do you want to eat, Ryland?” I asked my youngest boy.

“Can I also have that same thing Kuya Ryan is eating?” (For the sake of my non-Pinoy readers, Kuya is what we call an older brother.)

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “Which flavour do you want?”

He picked the Maple Harvest one.

I noticed Ryan threw an unpleasant glance at Ryland.

“Ryan,” I said, “why are you looking at your brother like you’re a bad guy from a movie?”

“Because he’s always copying me,” he replied.

I noticed the smile on Reggie’s face and I couldn’t help but chuckle when I said, “You always copy Kuya Reggie, too.”

“No, I don’t”

“Oh yes, you do. Does this sound familiar? ‘It matters if Kuya Reggie goes then I’m coming.’”
(That’s his usual answer whenever I ask him if he wants to go somewhere.)

“I play outside and he doesn’t.”

“There are many things that he does that you also copy. That’s why you should set a good example because your little brother will always copy you. If you do bad things, he might copy that, too.”

He may deny it, but he does copy his Kuya. The way he dresses and the shows he watches - just to name a couple. And I think it’s also the reason Ryan, though he complains sometimes, does his chores obediently. He sees his Kuya does his diligently.

How about you? Have you ever copied or have you been influenced by your older sibling?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somehow yes. I copied the things i think would help me.

With your siblings it only shows how much he loves his brother.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

It happens for my kids too. The younger ones will usually imitate the older ones.

As for me, I was the oldest sibling, I remembered imitating an older cousin, who got so tired of my following her around, she didn't want to play with me much.