Tom Facchine – If You Want Your Kids To Read DO THIS

One of the benefits from your story, and

that I hear from so many other stories

like it, is that, you know, as a

parent, right, the things that you do, your

kids pick up on.

Oh, yeah.

And honestly, it communicates your priorities much more

than the things that you say, right?

And so, SubhanAllah, like, you took me back

because I remember when my oldest son was

just a baby, well, maybe, okay, like six

months to a year.

I was studying for the GRE, right?

So, I was, like, always hitting the books,

you know, and, like, always had a book

open.

And they imitate, right?

So, it's like, he was, like, in his

little bouncy chair, right, with a book upside

down.

He can't read, but he's holding it upside

down because Papa's holding the book, right?

And SubhanAllah, like...

And he paid dividends later on because Medina,

I saw him, you know, he was...

Very studious.

He's very studious, yeah, exactly.

And all, Alhamdulillah, like, all my children, like,

are very studious and they're, you know, but

it really does set the tone and the

expectation.

This is just something we do, you know?

It's like, SubhanAllah, there was, you know, in

our community, like, I think one of the

sisters gatherings, one of the sisters, like, asked,

like, how many people have read a book

in the last year?

And, like, a lot of people can't raise

their hands because, like, so many people don't

read books anymore.

Yeah, yeah.

Right?

And then it's, like, well, how do you

expect your kids to, you know, be literate?

Exactly.

In a sense of, like, you know, like,

taqafah and culture and turah and, like, this

sort of thing.

You do it.

You got to read, man.

Like, you got, you have to do it.

Exactly.

A lot of times they might want to

drop their kid off to some program or

the masjid or bring in an outside speaker

and a heart softener and a motivation.

It's got to start with you.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And, you know, it comes full circle.

SubhanAllah, you mentioned that, you know, the impression

that your parents leave on you when you're

a young kid, it really comes back to

you later on.

Right?

And I always give this example to sometimes,

you know, I'm teaching at a high school

and parents, when they ask me, we have

this conversation and they're like, you know, my

kids, they love you, you know, and they,

can you talk to him about this or

that?

Right?

That's always, that's where it's headed.

You know, you know already where the conversation

is going to go.

And I always tell them, you know, subhanAllah,

what you do matters far more than what

I can tell them.

That's very important for them.

I tell them, listen, if I give them

a certain message in class that, look, X,

Y and Z is important for you, but

they go back home and they see their

parents either don't do that or do the

opposite of that.

You know what message they're actually getting?

Oh, whatever the teacher's telling may be important,

but it cannot be that important.

Had it been that important, my parents would

have done it.

Right?

And that's mixed messaging right there immediately.

So that's when students come out of Islamic

school and then you see them on Facebook

post and you're like, you know, you make

dua for them, oh Allah, hopefully they're still

Muslim.

Why does that happen?

Is because, in my estimation, is that we're

getting mixed messages and we can't do that.

You have to be consistent, right?

You got to play the long game.

Instill the idea that you want them to

hold on to early on and show them

in your life that I've been consistent on

this idea and they'll follow.

Yeah.