UNITED STATES—Kids sometimes do indeed say the funniest things, but what happens when a child begins to mimic and do what he or she sees? You open the door for a whirlwind of trouble. Some might be asking where this tale comes from, while it’s from my experiences watching my nieces and nephews age over time. Currently, my niece might be the funniest person to date.

At the moment, she is on the “Frozen” craze; trust me I can’t wait for that trend to end, but by the time that does happen I’m certain “Frozen 2” will be arriving in theaters. Kids really do learn a lot of their behaviors from the adults around them, but more so from the things they ‘see.’ There is a reason the internet and television has become so dangerous. Kids seem to think what they see in the media is an adequate reflection of real life.

I tried for weeks to wrap my mind around this phrase my niece kept uttering whenever she got frustrated. After watching another viewing of “Frozen” (for the 20th time) I figured it out: it was Elsa. The ice princess uttered those famous words and my niece picked up on them like they were golden. I mean she could rehearse every line of dialogue from that movie to the point that you would never have to watch it to know what happens.

What I have come to learn as an adult is that kids will absolutely imitate what they see and when they do something wrong, they will point the finger at the person who taught them the behavior. As adults we have to be aware not only of what we do, but what we say. When a child hits the age of 3 and 4 they really start to mimic their environments to a great degree. Not only with words, but facial expressions as well; you wouldn’t believe me if I told you how sassy my niece has become.

It’s interesting to see how inquisitive the young mind can be. Its like children want to soak up and absorb as much information as possible. I sometimes take a moment and wonder if I behaved in the same manner; did I ask a billion questions over and over again and expect to get a different result. Rather I left my parents on the verge of a mental breakdown with over the top antics and not following instructions?

I almost wish I could travel back in the past and just observe myself at the age of 3 or 4 and then compare my behavior then to the behavior of my nieces and nephews to see if any significant change has occurred in the perception of how children behave. Of course, technology has made a few things difficult; I mean my niece uses an iPad better than adults that I know.

My argument is that at a young age, this is the time that we should be instilling that knowledge into the future generation of tomorrow. They have a quench for reading, writing, drawing, visual cues and so much more. I mean my niece knows geography better than me. She knows the direction to so many places it scares the crap out of me. Not to mention that she knows the place of business where her father, mother, grandmother and so many others work. If you ask, she responds without even flinching.

They say the inquisitive mind opens the door to new horizons. It is indeed true, but at the same time we have to be careful what we expose our children to. Not just on the small or big screen, but what they might see us do on a daily basis. Remember when a child learns a bad behavior from the adult; you can only point the finger at one person: yourself!