It’s not always easy balancing between being a mom and mentor for your child.

​But it’s a worthwhile pursuit.

It’s amazing to me that I recorded this video one year ago. So much has changed. 2018 was an interesting year for all of us. Particularly for my daughter McKenna who made her own big transition from high school to college. For awhile there, we weren’t so sure college was going to be a part of her path. Not due to academics, but to interest and appetite. One year later she’s doing magnificently at college. And while it hasn’t come without its’ natural highs and lows, like with any change, she’s blooming forth into her next chapter beautifully.

At each turn I was summoned to be discerning about where I stood in my role with her – confidante, mentor, supporter, mother, and in what the video below describes as knowing when to be a “non-mom.” Which simply means, tending to my OWN life to allow her to tend to hers.

I’ve learned that trusting McKenna means trusting myself – that I’ve done a good job raising her; doing the best that I can with the resources I had at the time. All that we wish to impart to our children may not always be the best for THEM. Trust that they will adopt what works, and drop what doesn’t. That’s their right. It’s their path. I can nudge, and I can cheer lead, and I can disagree, but I wish not to judge. And I wish to invest the bulk of my energy in doing ME. That’s the best gift a parent can ever grant to their children. Letting them choose, letting them become, allows them to learn the Art of Blooming their own life.