Most of us think what our parents told us to think

[Bella Fortuna]

Actually, there is a funny split in where children draw their values from. Little kids get their accent from the kids that they mix with, not from their parents. But they seem to absorb their religion and often their politics from their parents.
The accent is hugely important for kids. If they were to grow up with a different accent, they are likely to get picked on for the rest of their lives, so it's not surprising that they absorb the accent of the kids that they grow up with, rather than from their parents.

Not true with at least one child of my acquaintance, who has absorbed nothing of the Scots accents with which he's been surrounded his whole life.

[HomerJay]

I read in a psychology book once

That's where you're going wrong.

[hadespussercats]

Actually, there is a funny split in where children draw their values from. Little kids get their accent from the kids that they mix with, not from their parents. But they seem to absorb their religion and often their politics from their parents.
The accent is hugely important for kids. If they were to grow up with a different accent, they are likely to get picked on for the rest of their lives, so it's not surprising that they absorb the accent of the kids that they grow up with, rather than from their parents.[/quotUe]
Not true with at least one child of my acquaintance, who has absorbed nothing of the Scots accents with which he's been surrounded his whole life.

Yeah, I don't really talk like where I'm from-- my parents drilled it out of me.

[mistermack]

Not true with at least one child of my acquaintance, who has absorbed nothing of the Scots accents with which he's been surrounded his whole life.

It's the infant years when you pick up your accent from other kids. Maybe he didn't mix with kids who had much of an accent.

You can lose it. My sister lost her local accent when she went to college, but she was training as a teacher, and came home talking middle Oxford. Maybe girls can change more easily than men.

If you look at immigrants though, you generally find that the kids have the local accent, not the immigrant accent.
But if they are over a certain age when they arrive, they tend to keep a lot of the original accent.
Of course, in a real ghetto, the kids don't get to meet the locals, so they keep the immigrant accent.

[rasetsu]

I speak from observing others...

That probably explains why the bulk of what you've written sounds like something you just pulled from your ass.

[Warren Dew]

Are you trying to turn your kids into you?

Who wouldn't want their kids to be perfect?

[Svartalf]

Maybe not on this forum. But the world in general.
They adopt the religion of their parents, and the political party of their parents.

We become our parents. On average that is. I would not expect ratz to follow that rule to the same extent as others.
Are you trying to turn your kids into you?

Wrongo, my dad was right leaning and I'm a lefty.

[JimC]

Maybe not on this forum. But the world in general.
They adopt the religion of their parents, and the political party of their parents.

We become our parents. On average that is. I would not expect ratz to follow that rule to the same extent as others.
Are you trying to turn your kids into you?

I did a science degree at Melbourne University.

So did my oldest son (in fact, in the Zoology department, like me)

My youngest son has just started a science degree at Melbourne University...

They are both atheists, and both like women and wine...

WHAT HAVE I DONE!

[klr]

Maybe not on this forum. But the world in general.
They adopt the religion of their parents, and the political party of their parents.

We become our parents. On average that is. I would not expect ratz to follow that rule to the same extent as others.
Are you trying to turn your kids into you?

I did a science degree at Melbourne University.

So did my oldest son (in fact, in the Zoology department, like me)

My youngest son has just started a science degree at Melbourne University...

They are both atheists, and both like women and wine...

WHAT HAVE I DONE!

What about song?

[JimC]

They like that too, but it definitely comes third, as it should...

[klr]

Can't argue with that.

[mistermack]

WHAT HAVE I DONE!

Don't worry. They'll move on to gin before long.

[mistermack]

I speak from observing others...

That probably explains why the bulk of what you've written sounds like something you just pulled from your ass.

Good argument. I can see that you've thought deeply about this.

[Svartalf]

Did I mention that my parents started my indoctrination in chretinity as soon as I was able to be told stories?

[Tyrannical]

Behavior does have a genetic link, so you shouldn't be surprised that children on average closer to their parents beliefs than a random stranger. I'm not discounting a nurture component, just that there is a genetic component.