If you are parenting, you are also mentoring. You’re an adviser, counselor, guide and trainer.

But does the use of the word mentor, in place of parent, change the feeling of your job a little?

It does for me! Particularly now that my children are grown, the title of mentor seems

to fit more often than parent.

So when might you be training and teaching? When kids are learning to clean, to answer or make phone calls properly, to communicate, to read and so on?

How about advising? Could that be when you are listening, as the wonderful validator that you are, and your child asks for your assistance when you offer to be help in appropriate ways with their problem?

My children learned things from my parenting that they will want to do differently with their children. And I’d hope there are things I did as a parent that they will allow themselves to automatically repeat because they saw positive fruit from those things. Mentorship is an important part of our growth and doesn’t end when we ourselves are grown.

I am still learning from my parents and from my friends who are further down the path than I am! I am grateful to be able to ask, “What comes next?” and “What did you do?” and “What would you do differently if given the chance?”

So here’s a challenge: to see yourself as a positive role model and mentor for all of the children in your life, and to consider the mentors you have in yours. Who is mentoring you?

Be well!

Love,

Jacque