It’s said that children learn a lot of their habits from their parents. But can children learn about infidelity from their parents?
Children learn by example
Parents are a child’s first teachers. Almost everything that kids know, they learn it from their parents. Additionally, children learn by example, so if a parent has certain bad habits that the child often sees, and thinks is okay to do, they will pick up on that behavior and assume that it’s okay.
If a child sees one of their parents lying to the other parent in order to hide something, then kids might misunderstand what they’re doing as correct behavior, so the kids will start lying as well. When one parent lies to another to cover up an infidelity, then their kids might also think that it’s okay to lie in order to hide things from people.
Any bad habit or trait, no matter how big or small, can make a large impact on children. Which is why parents need to set good examples to their children in order for their kids to grow up well.
photo: dreamstime
Infidelity affects kids more than you know
Aside from the more obvious effects of infidelity on a child, there are also less obvious but nonetheless damaging effects that it has.
Feelings such as shock, anger, shame, and anxiety tend to be seen among children whose parents have cheated. Kids also feel betrayed by their parent, which can cause them to have trust issues growing up.
These trust issues can in turn manifest in their own personal relationships, and can even lead to them being cheaters themselves, as they might be afraid of commitment because of what happened to their parents.
While it’s true that there are no concrete studies to prove that children learn about infidelity from their parents, the fact still remains that researchers do see patterns among children of cheaters that show infidelity has both short and long-term effects on children.
Source: marriagebuilders.com, huffingtonpost.com
READ: ‘Once a cheater always a cheater’: Why infidelity happens more than once, according to science
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