Sample Essay 1

Many say that we are the perfect product of our environment. Some say, that
our life experiences determine the kind of person we have become. Early childhood
has long been thought to be a period in the life cycle, when children are open to social
influences on characteristics that they will carry with them long after they have left their
family of origin. With their immature minds, youngsters can easily fall prey to the
influence of their parents, friends and surroundings. While all these factors can affect
our characters to a certain extent, in my opinion, family’s influence especially parents
is second to none. So, family plays the biggest or the most significant role in the way
we act, feel and think. This is because our parents shaped us at the time when we
were most vulnerable to being shaped, parents are their children’s role model and the
core values that we learned from our parents during our formative years do not erode
with time.

To begin with, our family has a great impact in shaping and influencing our lives
as they are our first and sometimes our best teachers. The saying “as the twig is bent,
so shall the tree grow” gives us the idea that parents are the ones assigned primary
responsibility for “bending” the children in desirable directions, by supervising,
teaching, and disciplining them as they grow up. This early influence ha a permanent
and profound effect on the young ones. As children grow, they will act the way they
were taught to act or behave. For example, most people who have criminal tendencies
acquire them as the result of bad parenting during childhood. However, parents who
teach their young children the fundamental social roles, the rules and behaviour that
is accepted to our community, these children will grow to become wholesome
individuals. Remember that young children don’t get many opportunities to interact
with the world outside their family. Almost everything that they learn as a child comes
from their parents. Our parents taught us all the basics of “proper” behaviour. We did
not know that it was socially unacceptable to eat without being invited, to play with the
vase on the coffee table, to hit our brother, to break our toys. These and a million other
rules were drummed into our heads by our parents. Proper manners, leading by
example, and giving us responsibility around the house all help to instill values which
in turn defined our characters. All these help to lay the groundwork for strong moral
compass in us. Thus, it is without any doubt that parents are the biggest influence on
one’s character as they the very first people who are responsible to imbibe their
children with values.

In addition, parents are indeed the biggest influence as they are the role models
to their children from young. Children always want to walk on the foot-prints of their
parents. When we were deciding on our goals and dreams, our parents were the best
source of inspiration. Their views become ours and even when we grow older and start
having our personal beliefs, which may differ from our parents, we still have many
characteristics resembling theirs. Youngsters most of the time take a leaf out of the
successful journey of their parents and learn from it. They want to emulate their
parents’ success and many even choose the same profession just like their parents.
Therefore, it is not surprising to see how a family of doctors produce children who are
doctors too. Unfortunately, we also see how children from dysfunctional family become

juvenile delinquents themselves. Arrogant parents with irresponsible behaviour may
intrigue their children to behave similarly. So the saying “the apple does not fall from
the tree” clearly support the notion that family has the biggest influence on one’s
character. They stand as a living example to their children in many ways. Thus, parents
play an instrumental and pivotal role in their children’s lives as they are looked upon
as role models.

Some may argue by saying that friends are the biggest influence in one’s life
when we grow up as we tend to spend more time away from our parents and home.
As a social being, we are always surrounded by friends. Although friends can influence
us, their influence in my opinion, is limited to certain activities and does not erode one’s
values and beliefs. This is because a family’s influence on its children spans across
different phases of their lives and what they have been taught since childhood do not
get erased so easily. For example, friends can be very persuasive when the subject is
something more superfluous, like which music they should listen to, what kind of
clothes they should wear or which places they should go for fun. However, when the
subject is something really significant, important and decisive to their lives- like what
career they should follow or if they should get married to a certain person – their
parent’s influence and advice are indispensable to their decision. So, no matter where
we are and what we are doing, our behaviour and thinking are often affected by our
families’ social status, relationship within the family and academics of our family
members. Friends and environment will change as we journey through our lives but
our core beliefs, attitudes and principles in life do not change as these are the values
our family has long ingrained in us and these values will remain in us. Hence, it is clear
that family has the biggest influence in determining our character and this influence
does not erode with time nor tide.

In conclusion, we can draw a safe conclusion that, the influence of a family on
their child’s character, the way one thinks and acts, is shaped by the way he or she
has been raised, which is why parents have a very important role to play in a child’s
development. Children spend more time during their formative years with their family
at home and outdoors and their parents are the first teachers for them in their social
and personal lives. Other external influences like friends are merely superficial and
momentary in nature. Most of one’s character is acquired during childhood, where
family teach their children to differentiate between the right and the wrong, making
them capable, and supporting their emotional, social, and intellectual development.
Hence, family is needed the biggest influence on one’s character.