Mentors and parents have different jobs in a child’s life. Parenting in permanent while mentors keep changing throughout the child’s childhood, growing into youth and adulthood. Mentors provide, support, encouragement and advice to inexperienced people. And children benefit a lot.
Reasons why a mentor plays an important role in a child’s life.
-A child may like a certain activity but may or may not be good at it. Mentors provide encouragement to kids to keep trying to pursue and achieve their goal.
-Mentors have more subject knowledge rather than parents. At some point in time, parents start taking a slightly backseat when it comes to providing guidance or advice related to certain specific subjects, topics or skills. This is because the child needs expert advice. That’s when mentors int eh same field as the child step it to take charge and provide guidance.
-Mentors can break or make a child’s dream. They can easily assess capability and talent in a child and provide support accordingly. When a child is struggling, he sometimes just needs reassurance and encouragement. But he doesn’t rely on his parents because he feels that they don’t know much in the area. Which is where the mentor come in to help him achieve his goal.
-Mentors also advise parents. Many times, parents are confused about the capability of their child in an area that they are not able to assess. Speaking to your child’s mentor can help in reassuring parents that their child is doing well or is figuring his way up or whether investing in this career is good for their child.
-Mentors can be critical too. Sometimes the child needs to be reminded of his weaknesses so that he can work on them to prevent them from holding him back. Mentors usually point out gaps in a student’s work and suggest ideas about how to overcome them.
-Mentors can sometimes fill a gap of an absent parent. When a child is under the influence of only one parent, he also ends up somehow trying to protect them and not sharing his anxiety with them. A strong mentor can help release the anxiety of a child and support him to deal with challenges in a positive way.