Why do my children ignore what I tell them?

Rabbi Landau answers that speeches don’t raise children; example does. “You can’t teach a child anything that you’re not living yourself.”

The Torah says “V’shinantam l’vanecha,” teach your children, and then tells you how: “b’shivtecha b’veisecha uvelechtecha vaderech,” when you sit in your house and when you walk on the way. Hashem is telling you to teach by the way you live: how you sit in your house, how you walk in the street, how you talk when you think no one is listening.

“If your word doesn’t match your life, your kids will ignore your words.” If you want your child to walk the path, you have to be walking it first, “because kids don’t follow instructions, they follow footsteps.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Children are raised by example more than by speeches.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

When a parent’s words don’t match his life, the children ignore the words.

Deepest human truth

Teaching happens in how you sit at home, walk in the street and speak when no one is listening. Children follow footsteps, not instructions.