December 8, 2025 • 19 mins
We explore how to teach optimism at home so kids learn to find the good inside hard moments, lower stress, and build resilience. A hospital visit, grocery sticker shock, and simple journaling become tools to mentor rather than only correct.
• defining a good parent as a parent who teaches
• why parents, not schools, must lead character education
• finding good inside aches, bills and bad days
• reframing money stress without denial
• optimism as a stress management skill for families
• journaling examples to teach from later
• simple prompts to help kids reframe
• year‑end mindset check and small rituals
• inviting dads and community to share the practice
If you appreciated this episode, hey, I would love to hear from you. You can go to singlemomsunitedpodcast.com and leave me some feedback there, or you can go to my YouTube channel, Facebook. I would love to hear from you.
https://singlemomsunitedpodcast.com/
As Mom's we are more than nurturers we are Mentors to our children.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey ladies, welcome to the Mom to Mentor Podcast.
If this is your first timejoining, welcome.
If you are a weekly listener,thank you for your loyalty.
Hey ladies, before I get thegame started, I am just so ever
(00:22):
grateful at the number ofdownloads that I've got over
today, which is 18,000.
So if you are a started thatnumber, thank you, thank you,
thank you.
It's been three and a halfyears, or not four, and which
I've started this podcast, andthere's been some changes and
(00:46):
modifications, and I've been twotests that grow this podcast and
I'll do mine as you are raisingyour children.
I have two for those that maynot know.
And I am a little single mind,so I'm just trying to say of
(01:08):
four things that I learned alongthe way that I was gonna do
better when I was raising mychildren.
Again, hopefully you are findingvalue, and I think some of you
are, for 18,000 downloads, and Iknow some folks are like that
off.
But given I didn't expect even ahundred downloads, yeah, that's
(01:31):
pretty significant for me.
So again, thank you so much.
Can I express that enough?
Alright, so let's get the partystarted.
What am I talking about today?
Well, my recent listeners mightbe trying to plant the virtual
character cards.
Where we're planting characterseeds and teaching you how to
(01:55):
cultivate those seeds.
This is the way a way ofpreparing them.
And nurse towards we are mental,we have to educate our children
(02:15):
and not lead to us to otherinstitutions or schools to teach
our kids.
Because if we're not teachingthem, someone else will.
And guess what?
It may not be aligned to yourmorals or values of what they're
being taught.
So this is your opportunity,Mom.
(02:36):
This is why I'm doing thispodcast.
It's to help you with how toteach your children.
Because I really wish this wasavailable to me when I was
raising my kids.
Now I had some strong mentors inmy life as it relates to helping
me with parenting my kids, likemy mom and my kids' grandmother,
(03:01):
which would help me as itrelates to doing things the
right way because they hadalready been there.
So their information andguidance was invaluable, but
there was still opportunity asfar as not just correcting kids,
but teaching them.
That's the point.
(03:22):
That's what's going to last withour kids, and it's better for it
to come from you.
That's right, because you'regoing to be with your child
lifelong.
Unlike with schools, they get anew teacher every year.
And that new teacher is going toteach them something else.
(03:43):
They'll remember that teacher.
But guess what?
They're probably not going to beable to go back and later on in
life and say, Miss Jones, I havea question.
That's not going to happen.
But guess what?
With you, they can come back andsay, hey, mom, I'm going through
this situation.
And we really didn't talk aboutthis when I was growing up.
(04:03):
But what do you think aboutthis?
And I am so happy to say that'swhere I am with my kids right
now, right?
Because I did not do a good jobwith teaching my kids.
And again, I define a goodparent as a parent that teaches.
It's just that simple.
And a bad parent is one thatdoesn't.
(04:25):
So yeah, I was in the categoryof a bad parent.
Yeah.
So we want to change thedynamics for you.
This is your opportunity.
You have a whole future ahead ofyou, moms.
This is your opportunity tochange your parenting style,
(04:48):
right?
And enhance it.
Because I'm sure you're a goodparent, right?
But if you want to be a betterparent, then you definitely want
to get into that rhythm ofteaching your children.
All right.
What am I talking about today?
I am talking about beingoptimistic.
(05:09):
And what's that mean?
That means you're finding goodin every situation, even in bad
situations.
Let me rephrase.
You are finding good in badsituations.
Yeah.
And that's important.
Why is it important?
Because you're going to have alot of bad situations that
(05:30):
you're going to encounter.
For instance, uh a couple weeksago, I got up and my body was
sore and aching and so forth.
Again, I'm an older single mom,and I don't know why my body
chooses to ache on certain days.
It just does.
And so I found myself like, ohmy gosh, where's the Tylenol?
(05:53):
Where's the Advil?
Where's the Bingay?
Where are these resources that Ican use to help me feel better?
And so I had an opportunity togo to the hospital and visit a
family member.
And as I was walking through thehospital, and I quickly glanced
(06:20):
in the different rooms, and Isaw people in hospital beds with
tubes and all kinds of thingshappening and the nurses
attending to them and so forth.
And even with my family memberbeing hooked up to tubes and so
forth.
And I was like, you know, howcan you complain about these
(06:44):
little bitty aches and pains?
You were able to walk in here,you were able to drive yourself
to the hospital and walk in,walk out, nobody had to admit
you.
And so my whole attitude changedbecause I needed that visit as a
(07:05):
reminder that how blessed I am.
Because otherwise, I would havecontinued through the day
saying, oh, woe is me, woe isme, when there are really people
out there that are going throughsome things, not just
physically, but mentally.
(07:26):
And so I'm so grateful and areminder just to be optimistic
that I could be the one that'sin the hospital.
I could be the one with tubes.
And I have been there, and it'snot fun.
It's not fun.
But that's what being optimisticis all about is seeking or
(07:50):
identifying the good in a badsituation.
Oftentimes in where we are nowas it relates to the economic
issues that we're encounteringand the high grocery prices and
so forth.
And I go in and I'll seesomething for$5.
And I'm like, wow, that's a lotof money when this used to be$3.
(08:14):
So the cost are up.
But then I have to go back andsay, you know what?
While it's expensive, I havemoney to buy it.
So that's what's beingoptimistic is all about is
finding the good because itcould be worse.
It could be worse.
(08:35):
And now, moms, once you startidentifying the good in your
situation or situations, now youcan start educating your child
or your children.
Because guess what?
When you start identifying thegood in these bad situations,
(08:58):
it's gonna help alleviatestress.
Yeah.
Because now you are learning anddeveloping a behavior that
manages stress because you'relooking for the good.
Yeah, you are looking for thegood and it makes a difference.
(09:20):
Ask me how I know.
After that hospital visit, ohyeah, I was skipping.
I was excited, I was elatedbecause it that could have been
me.
And all of it, all it takes isan accident.
And I got the nerve to sit hereand talk about, oh, my knees
(09:43):
hurt, my back hurt.
No, I had a whole new mindset, afresh perspective.
And all of a sudden, my wholeattitude changed for the
positive.
That's what being optimisticlooks like.
Yeah, so we don't want thatnegativity to hover over us and
(10:04):
be absorbed in our system.
Yeah, we want to take thisopportunity and say, you know
what, I'm not gonna let this getme down.
I'm not.
It's just that easy.
Now, how do we cultivate this?
How do we cultivate this?
You would want to journal yoursituation and look at the
(10:32):
positive side of it.
So I gave you the example of thegrocery store in the hospital,
right?
So as you're journaling, so youcan either do this in a hard
copy, a book, or I like OneNote,the app OneNote, and I can go in
and I that's my lifeline.
(10:53):
I go in, make notes, I can makedifferent file folders for
different issues and so forth.
And again, as I'm older, I havea tendency to forget.
But with OneNote, I just open itand I quickly jot things down in
there that I need to remember.
I want to talk about.
Like today's podcast, I put allmy notes in OneNote and I create
(11:16):
my tabs on what the topics aregonna be about.
So even if I couldn't haverecorded this episode today, the
information is still there thatI can go back and record later.
And so you can use OneNote.
And here's the other good thingabout OneNote you can access it
(11:36):
from your desktop, or you canaccess it from your phone and it
syncs up.
Because again, I'll wake up inthe middle of the night and I'll
have an idea because I'm anoverthinker, and I'll quickly
open OneNote, jot down my ideaand go back to sleep.
And then when I get up, now Iknow, yeah, you weren't dreaming
(11:58):
that you did actually make anote of this.
But either way, capture yoursituation, whether it's
digitally or you want to writeit down.
Why is that important?
Because you want to go back andshare with your children as
(12:19):
you're mentoring your child andeducating them that this is why
you gotta think positive in allsituations, not just one, all
situations.
If you're in an accident and youdidn't get hurt, but your car
was total.
(12:39):
Guess what?
That could have been muchdifferent.
And you gotta learn to bethankful that you made it out of
that accident without issue.
Be thankful that you can go intothe grocery store.
Yes, prices are high, but if youhave money to still pay for your
items, that's being optimistic.
(13:01):
So start jotting down theseexamples, mom.
Again, whether in book form orOneNote or however you want to
do this digitally as a reminderthat although it looks bad, is
(13:22):
not as bad that it looks, right?
You still have something to bethankful for.
And as we finish out 2025, thisis the perfect opportunity to
start changing your mindset andstart really getting in position
to help your children andteaching them.
(13:45):
Yeah, it's so important becausethere are gonna be some bad
days.
There's gonna be some toughdays, and how do you get through
it?
Yeah, you think about thepositive aspects of it, right?
It's easy to look at the badpieces of the issue, and but
(14:06):
once you start looking at thepositive, it really does change
your attitude.
Ask me how I know.
All right, ladies, that's it forme.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
And if you did, hey, come onnow, let me move over to 19,000
(14:29):
and 20,000 downloads.
Help me help you and tellanother mom and tell another
parent.
Because I know some fellas maybe listening as well while this
is designed for single moms.
But fellas, if you find value inyour parenting, because you can
do this as well, and if you'revisible in your child's life and
(14:53):
they're uh again looking to youas also a mentor, then
absolutely take this knowledge,share with your child, and then
maybe share with another dad,right?
Because that's what parenting isall about, it's not perfect,
there really is no rule bookaround it, how to be a parent,
(15:15):
but you can do this, you can dothis.
How do I know?
That's right.
I did it, and I'm so gratefulfor the opportunity in my life
that while I'm not a perfectparent and at times I was a bad
parent, but I'm so thankful thatI'm able to share with you for
(15:38):
you to get a head start to tryto change your mindset, your
approach to parenting when itcomes to your children.
All right.
If you appreciated this episode,hey, I would love to hear from
you.
I'd love to hear some fake somefeedback from you.
(15:58):
You can go to sing a mom'sunited podcast.com and leave me
some feedback there, or you cango to my YouTube channel,
Facebook.
I'm all over.
I would love to hear from you.
All right.
Have a great day.
Take care.
Hey ladies, welcome to the Mom to Mentor Podcast.
If this is your first timejoining, welcome.
If you are a weekly listener,thank you for your loyalty.
Hey ladies, before I get thegame started, I am just so ever
(00:22):
grateful at the number ofdownloads that I've got over
today, which is 18,000.
So if you are a started thatnumber, thank you, thank you,
thank you.
It's been three and a halfyears, or not four, and which
I've started this podcast, andthere's been some changes and
(00:46):
modifications, and I've been twotests that grow this podcast and
I'll do mine as you are raisingyour children.
I have two for those that maynot know.
And I am a little single mind,so I'm just trying to say of
(01:08):
four things that I learned alongthe way that I was gonna do
better when I was raising mychildren.
Again, hopefully you are findingvalue, and I think some of you
are, for 18,000 downloads, and Iknow some folks are like that
off.
But given I didn't expect even ahundred downloads, yeah, that's
(01:31):
pretty significant for me.
So again, thank you so much.
Can I express that enough?
Alright, so let's get the partystarted.
What am I talking about today?
Well, my recent listeners mightbe trying to plant the virtual
character cards.
Where we're planting characterseeds and teaching you how to
(01:55):
cultivate those seeds.
This is the way a way ofpreparing them.
And nurse towards we are mental,we have to educate our children
(02:15):
and not lead to us to otherinstitutions or schools to teach
our kids.
Because if we're not teachingthem, someone else will.
And guess what?
It may not be aligned to yourmorals or values of what they're
being taught.
So this is your opportunity,Mom.
(02:36):
This is why I'm doing thispodcast.
It's to help you with how toteach your children.
Because I really wish this wasavailable to me when I was
raising my kids.
Now I had some strong mentors inmy life as it relates to helping
me with parenting my kids, likemy mom and my kids' grandmother,
(03:01):
which would help me as itrelates to doing things the
right way because they hadalready been there.
So their information andguidance was invaluable, but
there was still opportunity asfar as not just correcting kids,
but teaching them.
That's the point.
(03:22):
That's what's going to last withour kids, and it's better for it
to come from you.
That's right, because you'regoing to be with your child
lifelong.
Unlike with schools, they get anew teacher every year.
And that new teacher is going toteach them something else.
(03:43):
They'll remember that teacher.
But guess what?
They're probably not going to beable to go back and later on in
life and say, Miss Jones, I havea question.
That's not going to happen.
But guess what?
With you, they can come back andsay, hey, mom, I'm going through
this situation.
And we really didn't talk aboutthis when I was growing up.
(04:03):
But what do you think aboutthis?
And I am so happy to say that'swhere I am with my kids right
now, right?
Because I did not do a good jobwith teaching my kids.
And again, I define a goodparent as a parent that teaches.
It's just that simple.
And a bad parent is one thatdoesn't.
(04:25):
So yeah, I was in the categoryof a bad parent.
Yeah.
So we want to change thedynamics for you.
This is your opportunity.
You have a whole future ahead ofyou, moms.
This is your opportunity tochange your parenting style,
(04:48):
right?
And enhance it.
Because I'm sure you're a goodparent, right?
But if you want to be a betterparent, then you definitely want
to get into that rhythm ofteaching your children.
All right.
What am I talking about today?
I am talking about beingoptimistic.
(05:09):
And what's that mean?
That means you're finding goodin every situation, even in bad
situations.
Let me rephrase.
You are finding good in badsituations.
Yeah.
And that's important.
Why is it important?
Because you're going to have alot of bad situations that
(05:30):
you're going to encounter.
For instance, uh a couple weeksago, I got up and my body was
sore and aching and so forth.
Again, I'm an older single mom,and I don't know why my body
chooses to ache on certain days.
It just does.
And so I found myself like, ohmy gosh, where's the Tylenol?
(05:53):
Where's the Advil?
Where's the Bingay?
Where are these resources that Ican use to help me feel better?
And so I had an opportunity togo to the hospital and visit a
family member.
And as I was walking through thehospital, and I quickly glanced
(06:20):
in the different rooms, and Isaw people in hospital beds with
tubes and all kinds of thingshappening and the nurses
attending to them and so forth.
And even with my family memberbeing hooked up to tubes and so
forth.
And I was like, you know, howcan you complain about these
(06:44):
little bitty aches and pains?
You were able to walk in here,you were able to drive yourself
to the hospital and walk in,walk out, nobody had to admit
you.
And so my whole attitude changedbecause I needed that visit as a
(07:05):
reminder that how blessed I am.
Because otherwise, I would havecontinued through the day
saying, oh, woe is me, woe isme, when there are really people
out there that are going throughsome things, not just
physically, but mentally.
(07:26):
And so I'm so grateful and areminder just to be optimistic
that I could be the one that'sin the hospital.
I could be the one with tubes.
And I have been there, and it'snot fun.
It's not fun.
But that's what being optimisticis all about is seeking or
(07:50):
identifying the good in a badsituation.
Oftentimes in where we are nowas it relates to the economic
issues that we're encounteringand the high grocery prices and
so forth.
And I go in and I'll seesomething for$5.
And I'm like, wow, that's a lotof money when this used to be$3.
(08:14):
So the cost are up.
But then I have to go back andsay, you know what?
While it's expensive, I havemoney to buy it.
So that's what's beingoptimistic is all about is
finding the good because itcould be worse.
It could be worse.
(08:35):
And now, moms, once you startidentifying the good in your
situation or situations, now youcan start educating your child
or your children.
Because guess what?
When you start identifying thegood in these bad situations,
(08:58):
it's gonna help alleviatestress.
Yeah.
Because now you are learning anddeveloping a behavior that
manages stress because you'relooking for the good.
Yeah, you are looking for thegood and it makes a difference.
(09:20):
Ask me how I know.
After that hospital visit, ohyeah, I was skipping.
I was excited, I was elatedbecause it that could have been
me.
And all of it, all it takes isan accident.
And I got the nerve to sit hereand talk about, oh, my knees
(09:43):
hurt, my back hurt.
No, I had a whole new mindset, afresh perspective.
And all of a sudden, my wholeattitude changed for the
positive.
That's what being optimisticlooks like.
Yeah, so we don't want thatnegativity to hover over us and
(10:04):
be absorbed in our system.
Yeah, we want to take thisopportunity and say, you know
what, I'm not gonna let this getme down.
I'm not.
It's just that easy.
Now, how do we cultivate this?
How do we cultivate this?
You would want to journal yoursituation and look at the
(10:32):
positive side of it.
So I gave you the example of thegrocery store in the hospital,
right?
So as you're journaling, so youcan either do this in a hard
copy, a book, or I like OneNote,the app OneNote, and I can go in
and I that's my lifeline.
(10:53):
I go in, make notes, I can makedifferent file folders for
different issues and so forth.
And again, as I'm older, I havea tendency to forget.
But with OneNote, I just open itand I quickly jot things down in
there that I need to remember.
I want to talk about.
Like today's podcast, I put allmy notes in OneNote and I create
(11:16):
my tabs on what the topics aregonna be about.
So even if I couldn't haverecorded this episode today, the
information is still there thatI can go back and record later.
And so you can use OneNote.
And here's the other good thingabout OneNote you can access it
(11:36):
from your desktop, or you canaccess it from your phone and it
syncs up.
Because again, I'll wake up inthe middle of the night and I'll
have an idea because I'm anoverthinker, and I'll quickly
open OneNote, jot down my ideaand go back to sleep.
And then when I get up, now Iknow, yeah, you weren't dreaming
(11:58):
that you did actually make anote of this.
But either way, capture yoursituation, whether it's
digitally or you want to writeit down.
Why is that important?
Because you want to go back andshare with your children as
(12:19):
you're mentoring your child andeducating them that this is why
you gotta think positive in allsituations, not just one, all
situations.
If you're in an accident and youdidn't get hurt, but your car
was total.
(12:39):
Guess what?
That could have been muchdifferent.
And you gotta learn to bethankful that you made it out of
that accident without issue.
Be thankful that you can go intothe grocery store.
Yes, prices are high, but if youhave money to still pay for your
items, that's being optimistic.
(13:01):
So start jotting down theseexamples, mom.
Again, whether in book form orOneNote or however you want to
do this digitally as a reminderthat although it looks bad, is
(13:22):
not as bad that it looks, right?
You still have something to bethankful for.
And as we finish out 2025, thisis the perfect opportunity to
start changing your mindset andstart really getting in position
to help your children andteaching them.
(13:45):
Yeah, it's so important becausethere are gonna be some bad
days.
There's gonna be some toughdays, and how do you get through
it?
Yeah, you think about thepositive aspects of it, right?
It's easy to look at the badpieces of the issue, and but
(14:06):
once you start looking at thepositive, it really does change
your attitude.
Ask me how I know.
All right, ladies, that's it forme.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
And if you did, hey, come onnow, let me move over to 19,000
(14:29):
and 20,000 downloads.
Help me help you and tellanother mom and tell another
parent.
Because I know some fellas maybe listening as well while this
is designed for single moms.
But fellas, if you find value inyour parenting, because you can
do this as well, and if you'revisible in your child's life and
(14:53):
they're uh again looking to youas also a mentor, then
absolutely take this knowledge,share with your child, and then
maybe share with another dad,right?
Because that's what parenting isall about, it's not perfect,
there really is no rule bookaround it, how to be a parent,
(15:15):
but you can do this, you can dothis.
How do I know?
That's right.
I did it, and I'm so gratefulfor the opportunity in my life
that while I'm not a perfectparent and at times I was a bad
parent, but I'm so thankful thatI'm able to share with you for
(15:38):
you to get a head start to tryto change your mindset, your
approach to parenting when itcomes to your children.
All right.
If you appreciated this episode,hey, I would love to hear from
you.
I'd love to hear some fake somefeedback from you.
(15:58):
You can go to sing a mom'sunited podcast.com and leave me
some feedback there, or you cango to my YouTube channel,
Facebook.
I'm all over.
I would love to hear from you.
All right.
Have a great day.
Take care.
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