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

Tom Facchine
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of communication and parenting in children’s behavior. They give examples of how parents and children share mixed messages and how it can affect children’s behavior. The speaker emphasizes the need for consistency and communication in early learning.
AI: Transcript ©
00:00:00 --> 00:00:01

One of the benefits from your story, and

00:00:01 --> 00:00:03

that I hear from so many other stories

00:00:03 --> 00:00:05

like it, is that, you know, as a

00:00:05 --> 00:00:08

parent, right, the things that you do, your

00:00:08 --> 00:00:09

kids pick up on.

00:00:09 --> 00:00:09

Oh, yeah.

00:00:09 --> 00:00:13

And honestly, it communicates your priorities much more

00:00:13 --> 00:00:15

than the things that you say, right?

00:00:16 --> 00:00:19

And so, SubhanAllah, like, you took me back

00:00:19 --> 00:00:23

because I remember when my oldest son was

00:00:23 --> 00:00:27

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

00:00:27 --> 00:00:27

months to a year.

00:00:28 --> 00:00:29

I was studying for the GRE, right?

00:00:30 --> 00:00:31

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

00:00:31 --> 00:00:33

you know, and, like, always had a book

00:00:33 --> 00:00:33

open.

00:00:33 --> 00:00:35

And they imitate, right?

00:00:35 --> 00:00:36

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

00:00:36 --> 00:00:39

little bouncy chair, right, with a book upside

00:00:39 --> 00:00:39

down.

00:00:39 --> 00:00:40

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

00:00:40 --> 00:00:43

down because Papa's holding the book, right?

00:00:43 --> 00:00:45

And SubhanAllah, like...

00:00:45 --> 00:00:46

And he paid dividends later on because Medina,

00:00:46 --> 00:00:47

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

00:00:47 --> 00:00:48

Very studious.

00:00:48 --> 00:00:50

He's very studious, yeah, exactly.

00:00:50 --> 00:00:52

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

00:00:52 --> 00:00:55

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

00:00:55 --> 00:00:57

it really does set the tone and the

00:00:57 --> 00:00:57

expectation.

00:00:58 --> 00:00:59

This is just something we do, you know?

00:00:59 --> 00:01:03

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

00:01:03 --> 00:01:04

our community, like, I think one of the

00:01:04 --> 00:01:07

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

00:01:07 --> 00:01:09

like, how many people have read a book

00:01:09 --> 00:01:10

in the last year?

00:01:10 --> 00:01:11

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

00:01:11 --> 00:01:13

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

00:01:13 --> 00:01:14

read books anymore.

00:01:14 --> 00:01:15

Yeah, yeah.

00:01:15 --> 00:01:15

Right?

00:01:15 --> 00:01:16

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

00:01:16 --> 00:01:19

expect your kids to, you know, be literate?

00:01:19 --> 00:01:19

Exactly.

00:01:19 --> 00:01:21

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

00:01:21 --> 00:01:24

taqafah and culture and turah and, like, this

00:01:24 --> 00:01:24

sort of thing.

00:01:24 --> 00:01:24

You do it.

00:01:24 --> 00:01:25

You got to read, man.

00:01:25 --> 00:01:27

Like, you got, you have to do it.

00:01:27 --> 00:01:27

Exactly.

00:01:27 --> 00:01:29

A lot of times they might want to

00:01:29 --> 00:01:31

drop their kid off to some program or

00:01:31 --> 00:01:33

the masjid or bring in an outside speaker

00:01:33 --> 00:01:35

and a heart softener and a motivation.

00:01:37 --> 00:01:38

It's got to start with you.

00:01:38 --> 00:01:39

Absolutely, absolutely.

00:01:39 --> 00:01:41

And, you know, it comes full circle.

00:01:42 --> 00:01:45

SubhanAllah, you mentioned that, you know, the impression

00:01:45 --> 00:01:48

that your parents leave on you when you're

00:01:48 --> 00:01:50

a young kid, it really comes back to

00:01:50 --> 00:01:51

you later on.

00:01:51 --> 00:01:51

Right?

00:01:51 --> 00:01:54

And I always give this example to sometimes,

00:01:54 --> 00:01:55

you know, I'm teaching at a high school

00:01:55 --> 00:01:58

and parents, when they ask me, we have

00:01:58 --> 00:02:01

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

00:02:01 --> 00:02:03

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

00:02:03 --> 00:02:05

can you talk to him about this or

00:02:05 --> 00:02:05

that?

00:02:05 --> 00:02:05

Right?

00:02:05 --> 00:02:07

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

00:02:07 --> 00:02:09

You know, you know already where the conversation

00:02:09 --> 00:02:09

is going to go.

00:02:10 --> 00:02:11

And I always tell them, you know, subhanAllah,

00:02:12 --> 00:02:16

what you do matters far more than what

00:02:16 --> 00:02:17

I can tell them.

00:02:17 --> 00:02:19

That's very important for them.

00:02:19 --> 00:02:21

I tell them, listen, if I give them

00:02:21 --> 00:02:24

a certain message in class that, look, X,

00:02:24 --> 00:02:26

Y and Z is important for you, but

00:02:26 --> 00:02:28

they go back home and they see their

00:02:28 --> 00:02:31

parents either don't do that or do the

00:02:31 --> 00:02:32

opposite of that.

00:02:32 --> 00:02:34

You know what message they're actually getting?

00:02:35 --> 00:02:38

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

00:02:38 --> 00:02:40

but it cannot be that important.

00:02:41 --> 00:02:43

Had it been that important, my parents would

00:02:43 --> 00:02:43

have done it.

00:02:44 --> 00:02:44

Right?

00:02:44 --> 00:02:46

And that's mixed messaging right there immediately.

00:02:47 --> 00:02:49

So that's when students come out of Islamic

00:02:49 --> 00:02:51

school and then you see them on Facebook

00:02:51 --> 00:02:54

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

00:02:54 --> 00:02:56

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

00:02:56 --> 00:02:56

Muslim.

00:02:56 --> 00:02:57

Why does that happen?

00:02:58 --> 00:03:00

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

00:03:00 --> 00:03:02

getting mixed messages and we can't do that.

00:03:02 --> 00:03:04

You have to be consistent, right?

00:03:04 --> 00:03:05

You got to play the long game.

00:03:06 --> 00:03:07

Instill the idea that you want them to

00:03:07 --> 00:03:10

hold on to early on and show them

00:03:10 --> 00:03:12

in your life that I've been consistent on

00:03:12 --> 00:03:13

this idea and they'll follow.

00:03:13 --> 00:03:14

Yeah.

Share Page