Sample Essay 1: Outline

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.