As parents you are the most influential person in your child’s life. Being a good role model to our children helps them to learn how to behave and how to make a positive contribution to the world in which they live. Children are watching all of the time for examples of behaviour, even when we think they aren’t necessarily paying attention. We love this poem, written by our Parenting Co-ordinator, which explores the impact of our positive behaviour on our children.
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw you hang my painting on the fridge and I wanted to paint another one because I knew you like it and was proud of me
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw you make my favourite cake and I knew that little things are special things
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw you smile at me when I was kind to my friend and it made me feel special and happy and want to always make you smile
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I felt you kiss me goodnight and it made me feel loved and cared for
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw how you were kind to my friends and it made me understand how it is important to be nice to people
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I watched how you were nice to my family and I saw how we have to be kind to people and speak nicely to everyone
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I heard how you were kind to the shopkeeper even though he was not very polite and I see now that we have to be nice to people even if they are unkind or unthoughtful – he may have been busy or sad himself
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes we are sad but it is okay to cry
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I heard you speak politely to our neighbour who sometimes shouts at us and it made me think it is important to be nice to people even if sometimes they are angry or unhelpful
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw you hug my mum/dad/uncle/aunt/grandma/granddad and it made me see that it is nice to give hugs to someone we know and love in our family
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw you smile at me and it made me feel happy inside and treasured
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I saw that you cared about me and my family and it made me want to be the best person I can be
When you thought I wasn’t looking, I looked
And I wanted to be all the things I saw when you thought I wasn’t looking at you
If you would like to know more about support with parenting in Shropshire them please drop us an email at ShropshireFIS@shropshire.gov.uk or call us on 01743 254400
Shropshire Family Information Service 
It’s brilliant and I’ve always loved this – would be nice to credit the lady who inspired it and wrote the original though. It’s been around for 30 yrs (ish) and shows that these things are timeless. It was written by a daughter (Mary Korzan) and given to her mother on her wedding day.
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/09/29/when-you-thought-i-wasn%E2%80%99t-looking/
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