What children and teens need most in stressful situations, especially when they make mistakes, ‘misbehave,’ experience ‘failure,’ or cry for any reason (including what we might call a ‘temper tantrum’), is a hug and being told, “You matter to me, I love you so much. I’m here for you. Let’s figure this out together.

Even if you had a rough start to life, even if you had parents who were emotionally unavailable, just like every other baby who has ever come into this life you affected people so deeply as the embodiment of love.

If ever a child makes a mistake, no matter how big, they need to hear in words and loving actions, “Even though you made a mistake you are loved. There are consequences to your actions, and I’m here for you. I know you are just learning how to be in life. Let me help you navigate through life.

Kids are scared, uncertain and just finding their way. Be a loving mentor. Extend your wisdom patiently.

If a parent is consistently emotionally unavailable when the child attempts to share what they are learning or invites their parent to spend time playing, the child can feel deeply unworthy of love and attention.

If you took on any lies about yourself when you were young, I wish a parent or a mentor had explained to you that other people's behavior had nothing to do with you.

You have been the recipient of generations of programming of a variety of lies. Spanning back 20 generations in your lineage, each parent’s parent totals over a million immediate ancestors for you alone. In approximately 500 years, you have a multitude of beliefs, energies, and DNA combining and influencing your existence from all these people in your lineage.

Like a loving parent who watches their child learning to walk, the Divine is the ultimate parent letting us experiment, fall down, hurt ourselves, cry, get back up, and try again. God allows us to learn even when it may hurt, yet we are never abandoned.

Your most important job as a parent, or as a friend to a child, is to mentor children in a field of unconditional love and acceptance. Your gift is to see the rightness in them and reflect it back. You are the witness of the Divine in them.