Call Me Coach

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I've reflected on my changing roll as a mother frequently this year since my youngest turned 18 and legally, I'm no longer responsible for him or any of my children.

I metaphorically throw up my hands in frustration when I sometimes see my young adults making less than stellar choices, or making no choices at all, which is often worse.

Talking with friends who have adult children, we agree it is harder parenting them now than it was when they were young, mainly because we used to be able to tell our children what to do and they did it.  Now we can tell them what to do and they just ignore us.

Since I'm not Mommy anymore, I have found there are other roles to fill more beneficial to my adults/kids.  So, call me coach.  This is one roll I can fill.  I can encourage.  I can help them set goals (if they ask). I can help develop a life plan (because I want them to succeed).  A life coach, right?

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I asked my daughter exactly what a life coach did because I wasn't sure.  After she explained, I said, "It's a Mommy, right?"  She agreed that there were parallels.  A life coach appears to help one analyze his life, experiences, hopes, plans and dreams in order to devise a plan to determine, devise and eventually reach his goals.

Did you have someone in your life to coach you as a young adult?  Unfortunately, I didn't but, in retrospect, I could have benefited from that type of support and coaching. That's one of my goals now, to coach my kids.  To help them make a plan and devise benchmarks in order to reach their goals and dreams.

They don't need me to tell them what to do, but I want to be available to be a coach if that's what it takes to assist them along the path to adulthood.