Mentors: How Great They Are!

For February´s issue of the website that I run I am working on articles about mentoring. If you are a mother in business, mentoring is definitely something that you should look into. I didn´t seek out a mentor when I started to run my own business, but I did find someone, through my writings and interviews, to become my mentor. I´m not even sure that she knew it at the time. I looked up to her to answer questions, because she had been through all of the business steps that I was going through. I would send her off an email and a few days later receive a response. She saved me so much time, and she taught me so much through her knowledge. It would have taken me much longer to get my business started if I had not had her help.

With that said, I was thinking as I wrote up February´s articles for the website that it would be great if new mothers could have mentors. How much stress, and how many phone calls to the pediatrician, would that save? I know when I had my first baby I was terrified about everything that was going on. She would sneeze and I would call the pediatrician. This time around, I understand that my daughter is clearing out her nasal passages when she sneezes and not suffering from a vicious cold, but how great would it have been three years ago had I known a mother who had just been through the newborn stage that could help me along.

I also think it would be great if working mothers could have mentors, not for the working aspect, but for the juggling of it all aspect. Think how great it would be if you could call someone up and ask how they manage to get their children and themselves to work on time in the morning, or what meals they prepare on nights when they have meetings or their children have after school sports.

This morning at the park I met a mother who has two children that are the same age span as mine. Her youngest is now the age of my oldest, and as we stood there she talked to me about the feelings that she´d had and the experiences that she had gone through right after her youngest was born. I saw myself in her words: feeling guilty that my time is not all spent with my oldest daughter, hoping that they will want to play together when the youngest gets a bit older, and wondering about how to get everyone ready and make it out of the house in only one hour instead of three. As we talked, I learned a lot, not just in how to juggle it all, but that what I was going through and feeling were completely normal, and that mothers all over the world who have added a new addition to the family went through the same.

So, as you make your way through your work week, keep in mind that someone might be going through something that you recently conquered, and if you see them struggling, offer some advice. And look toward the other people who have been through what you are currently trying to tackle. Talk to them. Ask them how they did it. We can all have mentors, or be a mentor, even if it is not a long term relationship. A mentor may be someone that we meet on the playground for just half an hour; someone that gives us a few jewels of advice which, in turn, helps us over that hump.