We were at my parents’ place last Sunday for our weekly family dinner. My sister’s family was there too, and we were all either eating desserts, talking or watching a Taiwanese drama serial.

Then there was an interesting part of the serial where the wife of a character was brought to a flat where she caught her husband red-handed with a mistress. An argument ensued with the usual climax ending with the wife giving the mistress a tight slap.

No prize for guessing it right. My son immediately came over to me and gave me a slap and said,”I slap you like in the show!”

The Power of TV illustrated. Children Learn What They See & Hear.

One morning I asked my son if he would like to have cocoa-crunch or cocoa-pop for breakfast (not that there’s much difference since both are cornflakes coated with cocoa). He indicated that he would like to have “cocoa-pop”. “OK” I said and proceeded to open the pack.

“I DIDN”T SAY THAT!” he shot back, obviously changing his mind.

I was caught by surprise. Barely 3-years old and he has learnt to deny?

He must have learnt this from school I thought. And in my mind I started blaming the school for all these bad habits that I see in my son.

But wait a minute.. the phase “I didn’t say that” sounds so familiar.. where did I hear it from..

And it suddenly dawned on me that this is a phrase that I often use when I have disputes with our domestic helper. You see, many times when our domestic helper does something that I had not asked her to do, she would insist that I had told her so. Then, I would retort by saying “I DIDN’T SAY THAT!” .

My little son must have witnessed the disputes and picked that phrase from me.

This is indeed a reminder to me to be mindful of my ways because I have a "little sponge" beside me who picks up all my ways, be they good or bad.