"My Ethical Standards Come From..."

So we all have those memories from being a kid where you do something wrong and you get punished by your parents. While trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to say in this entry I suddenly remembered something: The Oreo Incident. Growing up we kept treats (such as cookies) out of the reach of me and my brother in a cabinet above the microwave. It was well known that we were not to eat said treats unless granted permission. I remember one day I managed to get my hands on an Oreo or two, and of course I got caught. Instead of admitting to the crime I tried to weasel my way out of it. Naturally I was unsuccessful, and therefore had to learn the "lesson about lying".

While this may seem like a silly story, it proves that the lessons my parents taught me when I was younger have stuck with me even now. They helped lay the foundation for me to create my own set of standards off of. My parents taught me the basic lessons, kind of like "Ethics for Dummies", and then let me be free to make my own mistakes and learn other things for myself.

It's like anything in life: you learn best by experiencing something hands on. Your parents can tell you "lying to someone is wrong and will hurt the person you lie to" but you don't actually understand the meaning behind that until you witness it firsthand. Whether you are the person being lied to, or if you see the consequences of telling a lie yourself, the lesson is still the same.

I look at it like learning how to ride a bike. At first you start out with training wheels to get used to the bike. Then as you progress, your parents take off them off, and you have to readjust what you learned from the training wheels and apply that to your new situation. The lessons your parents teach you when you are younger are the training wheels for your own code of ethics, and as you go on living you apply them. This is how we go about creating our own set of standards.

While this may seem like an elementary level comparison I believe it shows how I've come about my ethical standards in the perfect way. Ethics don't need to be complex, they just need to be ethical. Since when did right and wrong become so complicated?