Mom2Mentor
Encouraging and motivating single mothers, reminding them of their strength and determination. They can succeed as a single parent as long as they remain focused.
Its not about how you arrived at the single mom title, but, its what you do with it!
Mom2Mentor
Teaching Kids The True Meaning Of Friendship
We explore what a real friend looks like, why labels matter, and how to teach kids to choose wisely. From health benefits to boundaries, we share practical steps to model and cultivate genuine friendships that last.
• defining friendship as safe, honest, non-romantic connection
• why most people are acquaintances, not friends
• how authenticity attracts the right circle
• research on friendship and health outcomes
• core traits to model: trust, honesty, non-judgment, shared interests
• setting boundaries in opposite-sex friendships
• being a friend first to find a friend
• how to teach kids to sort friends from acquaintances
• using a lifelong friendship story as a guide
• taking inventory of your circle and guarding against envy
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As Mom's we are more than nurturers we are Mentors to our children.
Hey ladies, welcome to the Mom to Mentor podcast, where this podcast is designed to encourage, motivate, and educate you, Mom. If this is your first time listening, welcome. If you are a repeat listener, thank you for your loyalty. The Mom to Mentor podcast is all about helping you, Mom, educate your children so you can prepare them for life. And guess what? There is no rule book around parenting because there's so many situations that can occur and that you're gonna have to finagle and say, you know what? What do I do now? And you have those questions. Hopefully, this podcast will help you be proactive in some areas, and when that time arises, you'll be ready for it. Over the past few weeks, I've been talking about planting character seeds or character traits into your children. It's not gonna happen in schools or other institutions. This is gonna be up to you, mom, to educate them because we are more than just nurturers. We are educators. Yeah, that's right. You're a teacher, you're a mentor. Alright, so what am I talking about today? This one should be good for you, Mom. Hopefully, it'll resonate with you. You can ultimately teach your child or your children. But today I'm talking about friendship. What it is, why we need it, and how do you identify it? Everybody is not your friend. We have to stop giving them that title when they're not qualified. Right? There's a lot of people we know, but they're not necessarily our friends. They're just people we know. Bless my son back in the day when he was growing up and he was very popular, he still is. He used to always say, Oh, this is my friend, this is my friend, this is my friend. And finally, I had to tell him, sir, everybody's not your friend. Those are people you know, and it's a difference. And we'll go through that in a minute of what a true friend is versus somebody you just know. What does it mean to be a friend? A friendship is meaningful, a non-romantic connection where you can openly share your thoughts and feelings without fear or judgment or criticism. Friends typically have shared interests and offer each other support, basically, similar likes when it comes to people, places, things, and music. This relationship is built on mutual comfort, allowing you to confide personal matters and form a bond rooted in affection and respect. To summarize all of that up, ladies, birds of a feather flock together. That's what it means to have a true friendship, right? People may not like things that you do and say or where you go, but you have to understand what that means as to being a friend. So who is a friend? What do they look like? Friends can come in all shapes, sizes, cultures, and genders. It's just someone you can talk to. You could have male friends, it's just as you have female friends, but you have to make sure you give them the correct title. Okay. So how do you develop a friendship? Number one, you just be yourself because if you're being someone else, you're not going to attract the correct person in your life to give them the label of friendship. The right person will come to you when you're authentic and being who you are. Truth is, you will only have one or two true friends in your lifetime. And I can honestly say that is absolutely correct. I really only have one true friend. So why do we need friends? Research shows that friendship can have a significant impact on not only our emotional well-being, but also our physical health, and that being friends with two or more people can lead to more satisfactory quality of life. Yeah. So if you want to live longer, find a good friend. Friendship can affect everything from our blood pressure to our immune function to healing from illness. And so for this reason, it can be important to define what it means to have a good friend and determine ways to nurture healthy friendships. I believe you should automatically display these traits so you'll know what to look for in a friend. It starts with you, mom. You should have shared interests, ability to not judge one another, accept each other for who you are, be confident, trustworthy, be able to be honest with your feelings. Friends accept feedback. If you're doing something wrong, you can go to your friend and be like, hey, that's not working. That doesn't reflect who you are. And as a friend, you'd be able to tell you that. Matter of fact, you would want a friend to tell you that, not get out there and make a fool out of yourself because if they see it, then somebody else is gonna see it. So it's almost like that level of protection around you by being honest with you. Friendship in a form of relationship is not sexual. Okay, so again, when I think about being friends with a male, yeah, it's just you being able to confide in that person, and there's no hanky panky happening. You both have set those boundaries of this is just a friendship where we can talk and confide in what's going on in our lives without fear of judgment. And there's no intimacy expectations. A true friend make themselves available if there is a crisis. So, how do you cultivate this friendship? To find a friend, you have to be a friend, mom. It's just that simple. I just gave you the traits to consider that you should project if you want to have a friend, right? Or attract a friend to you. This is how you know what to look for because you have displayed those character traits. Generally, friendships develop because you share the same interests. So, how do you share that with your child? Thanks for asking. I appreciate that. Again, it starts with you. You be a friend, you practice those traits. And once you start going to a place or frequent the same place multiple times, or listening to the same music, then that's where you're gonna start seeing some of the same people. Then you're gonna start a conversation with no expectations, you're just talking, and next thing you know, you're gonna develop a friendship. When I was growing up, and I've had the same friend for over 40 years. I hear you calculate my age. I told you I'm old school. Back then we did everything together. And we played with our dolls and played outside, rode bikes together. When we grew up, we were able to confide in each other about different things happening, and we had that support structure. And to this day, we both have families, and so we're able to talk with one another and share different things we're going through. And guess what? We don't have to worry about hearing it again from someone else because we've developed that bond, that friendship. As I started off this episode, make sure you give people the right title, the right label. It starts there. Just because you know of someone, they doesn't mean they are your friend. It just means you know them. A friend is going to have your back. They're gonna look out for you, they will defend you in your absence. This is the kind of person you want in your life, right? Because otherwise, I've heard it so many times before, where people get betrayed and they come back and say, I thought you were my friend. You never want to get to that stage because they have betrayed you. And that's why we say a true friend, you really only have one and a maximum of two. Everybody else is just somebody you know. So check your friend's surroundings. If you say, I have 10 friends, probably not. I'm just being honest with you. You probably really only have one true friend out of that ten. So you might just want to take inventory. The way you share this with your children, again, go over those traits of what it means to be a friend so that they don't get disappointed. At least they'll know if this is going to be a true friend or not by how they carry themselves, how they interact with you, because true friends aren't jealous of you. True friends want to see you succeed, and not only do they want to see you succeed, they're gonna help you succeed. Yeah. So if you're interacting with a person that always has something negative to say and doesn't have a positive outlook, that's not a friend, that's somebody you know. Yeah, because people unfortunately get jealous, get envious of you when you're doing well. And so, moms, it's up to you to say, you know what, you're just a person that I know. Yeah, put them in the right place and you can treat them the proper way when they're an acquaintance versus a friend, because with an acquaintance, you're gonna limit the amount of information you give them. Then you don't have to come back and say, Oh, I thought you were my friend. Hmm. All right, ladies. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, tell another mom, tell another parent. This is an extremely important episode because you're going to interact with so many people throughout your life, and even your children. Once you identify these key traits, you can probably educate your child or your children. This is what it means to be a friend. Hey, you have a wonderful day, a wonderful week, and a fantastic month. Take care.
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