I think it was a more or less subconscious activity -- looking at my own behavior, actually hearing what I said to others -- before my kids were born... after that, I HAD to hear what I said to them & view it thru their eyes. I then I had to hear my own parents voices again & again in my head, & come to a better understanding of what they said, what they did, & therefore what I was saying & doing.

Credit for most of my growing self-awareness over the years (& I ain't no spring chicken, cluck cluck!) really HAS to go to my kids. While I was always drawn to rational thinking, being a lifelong atheist, & instinctively questioning pretty much everything, I owe my kids so much for actually causing me to grow & learn. It is really thru them that I was forced, so to speak, to become more *actively* self-aware. To work on it regularly.

I think anyone who is truly interested in helping their own kids become the best human beings they can be, simply must listen to & watch themselves much more carefully thru the eyes of their children (& consequently thru others' eyes & ears) & let their kids teach them a thing or two or three!

But thank you anyway, ronlawhouston, for the vote of confidence :-)

Being an atheist does not automatically mean a person is a rational or compassionate human being. I've met plenty who are far from it! And no matter how rational any one of us are, we are emotional beings at our core.

I have long noticed that while we generally strive for & highly value rational, intelligent thought, we REACT to the world on an emotional level. It's the number one reason that the billion dollar business of advertising works so well that it actually IS a consistently thriving mutli-billion dollar business -- just as an example.

But humans seem hardwired to be superstitious anyway, regardless of what our rational take on the world is -- *in general*. And superstitions lead to preconceived (or unexamined) thoughts, I think. Often without our being aware of it at all.

I know where (most of) my superstitions lie. And I find them both funny & irritating. But they are pretty hard to shake... Put it down to a lifetime of training, coupled with the basic human desire, we all seem to possess, to believe we are individually "special" in some way, somehow.