July 16, 2025 • 17 mins
Respect is a crucial character trait for fostering positive relationships, creating harmonious environments, and promoting individual well-being by acknowledging others' inherent worth and dignity. We explore the vital importance of teaching respect to children through direction rather than correction to build their self-esteem and develop healthy relationship skills.
• Respect creates stronger connections and improves communication in all relationships
• Teaching respect helps children navigate disagreements without disrespecting others
• Individual respect builds self-esteem, confidence, and promotes emotional well-being
• Respectful interactions in relationships reduce conflict through understanding and compromise
• The difference between teaching (direction) versus correcting behavior without explanation
• Understanding that fear-based compliance is not the same as genuine respect
• Children model their behavior after their parents, making mentorship crucial
If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave feedback and let me know if there's a specific character seed you'd like me to discuss in the future. Share this episode with another mom who might need support teaching their children about respect.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey ladies, welcome to the Mom2Mentor podcast.
If this is your first timejoining, welcome If you are a
repeat listener.
Thank you for your loyalty.
These last few episodes thatI've been doing for those of you
that have been following meknow I have been planting a
(00:23):
virtual character garden.
It's all about using theimagination, right?
We don't want things to getboring and I want you to
continue to come back, but thisshould hopefully allow you to
use your imagination, and thispodcast is all about encouraging
your parenting skills.
Yes, it's designed forencouraging and motivating
(00:47):
single moms, but if you are amom in general, this is for you
too.
I'm going to continue down thepath of planting virtual
character seeds.
As you know, in the past I'vetalked about confidence and
honesty, and today I want totalk about respect and what that
is and what it means, and whywe need it and why we need to
(01:11):
teach our children.
I cannot stress enough we aremore than just moms and
nurturers.
We are mentors.
Our children are modeling theirbehavior after hours.
How do I know?
I'm a mom and I've seen my kidsdo some things.
I didn't think they saw I wasdoing, but once I saw it and
(01:34):
especially if it was negative,I'm like, oh my gosh, I got to
do better.
Thankfully they saw.
I think they saw more positivebehaviors than negative.
And that's really the point,moms.
We're not perfect.
We make mistakes, and it's okay, and sometimes our kids see
those mistakes.
We just got to try to do better.
(01:56):
I'm talking about respect againtoday.
What is respect and why do weneed it?
Respect is crucial forfostering positive relationships
.
It creates a harmoniousenvironment and promotes
individual well-being and itreally does.
It also acknowledges theinherent worth and dignity of
(02:29):
others.
It leads to strongerconnections or stronger
relationships, and anytime yougot two people involved, it's a
relationship, not just loverelationship, but I'm just
talking about in general in lifethat you're going to have to
interact with people.
It improves communication andprovides a greater sense of
safety and trust.
Respect is the ultimatecharacteristic that will help
(02:52):
support a healthy society.
Right?
If we respect each other, weain't got to kill and cuss out
and all this other stuff that wedo when we disagree with each
other.
Right, we have to acknowledgeit's okay.
At that point of view, I don'thave to agree with you, but I
also don't have to hate you.
This is where I respect you.
(03:14):
It's okay that you believe inthis and I don't.
That's okay, but we should nottake that opportunity to
disrespect someone because oftheir beliefs.
Why is it important?
At an individual level, itbuilds self-esteem, self-worth
(03:35):
and your confidence increases.
What does confidence mean to me?
Strength right.
It promotes emotionalwell-being.
It promotes emotionalwell-being.
It creates a safe andsupportive atmosphere where
people can feel comfortable.
You don't want to go somewherewhere you're going to be
disrespected.
It is extremely important thatwe acknowledge people's
(03:59):
differences.
We acknowledge that differencewithout being negative about it.
Additionally, individualrespect it encourages personal
growth.
Respecting yourself and othersencourages a willingness to
(04:19):
learn, adapt and grow as aperson.
Adapt and grow as a person.
It fosters a sense of belonging.
It's respectful interactions.
It contributes to feelings ofinclusion and connection within
a community or a group and myassumption is it's mostly moms
(04:41):
that are listening to thispodcast.
Why you feel comfortable?
Because I've gone through someof the things you're going
through and you can relate, youcan identify.
So you feel comfortable.
You feel respected Because onceupon a time ago, because I'm an
older single mom, it was prettyrough out here ladies as far as
(05:02):
respect is concerned as asingle mom, and most of the time
.
I didn't get it because I waslooked at as a whore, because I
wasn't married, and that's notfair.
I was disrespected becausenobody knew my story.
Let's talk about what respectdoes in a relationship, and
(05:25):
while I present this to you, youcan also extract some of these
little nuggets for yourself,right?
Especially if you're in arelationship now.
And while you're learning thesethings, you can pass it along
to your child or your children.
What does respect do for arelationship?
It strengthens bonds.
It's essential for building andmaintaining a healthy
(05:48):
relationship with your boo.
You have to respect each other.
You can't call each other outof your name and think that's
okay.
You can disagree, just do it ina manner that it doesn't go to
a level of disrespect.
It facilitates effectivecommunication.
(06:08):
When individuals feel respected, they are more likely to be
open and honest.
Yeah, so that's important in arelationship, and many
relationships die because of thedisrespect and dishonesty.
It also helps reduce conflictdishonesty.
(06:33):
It also helps reduce conflict.
Respectful interactions canprevent and resolve conflicts by
fostering understanding,empathy and compromise.
But if we're not willing to dothat, then guess what?
That lack of conflictresolution is going to create an
uncomfortable environment forboth of you all.
And then if your children areinvolved, oh my gosh.
(06:53):
This is why they stressed outbecause of the environment.
They're in right.
Because of that negativity,they're seeing and hearing All
right.
So what does respect do?
As it relates to society?
It creates a fair environment.
It ensures everyone is treatedequally.
I don't care if we do see ayoung man, older man, on the
(07:19):
side of the highway with thesign saying homeless or can you
give me a dollar, two dollars.
We still want to respect him,just as if someone was walking
in the building next to uswithout the sign, asking for
help.
It promotes equality and that'swhat you have to explain to
your children.
And it doesn't matter ourculture, our sizes, gender.
(07:46):
We respect everyone the sameequally, and that's how you
explain that to your children.
You don't disrespect someonebecause they look different from
you.
It also fosters a positiveenvironment and we need that.
There's just so much negativitygoing on right now that if we
(08:08):
can be that change agent as itrelates to being positive, then
we need to do it, and then itencourages moral behavior to
treat others with kindness.
The long story short is youtreat everyone with kindness, no
matter who they are one withkindness, no matter who they are
(08:35):
, and especially you, mom,because you deserve respect as
the mom, as the nurturer and nowas the mentor.
Your children shouldn't talk toyou any kind of way.
You know one of the things as Iwas raising my kids.
You know one of the things as Iwas raising my kids, I did not
(08:58):
do a good job with educatingthem and teaching them because I
didn't know any better.
So often their teaching camefrom me correcting them or
correcting a bad behavior, butthis is what we need to adopt,
mom.
A bad behavior, but this iswhat we need to adopt, mom.
Instead of focusing oncorrection, let's introduce
(09:21):
direction.
When I say direction, I'mtalking about teaching mode.
Right, because that's what thispodcast is all about is
mentoring, teaching, learningand paying it forward.
Learning and paying it forwardBecause had I done more
direction slash teaching, thenthere probably wouldn't have
been much correction involved.
And really, when you get in thecorrection arena, you're just
(09:46):
correcting that behavior.
You're still not teaching.
At least for me, I still wasn'tteaching.
I was just in that setting ofjust correcting the behavior.
Hey, you don't do that.
Don't ever do that again.
That's not right.
But I never said this is whyit's not right.
Okay, and as a result of notexplaining a why it's not right,
(10:09):
then guess what?
There was more of a sense offear with me because, depending
on what I had to do to correctthe behavior, versus them saying
, oh, I get it.
Now I shouldn't do this becausewhen we get into teaching mode,
(10:32):
that's what's going to helpbuild their self-esteem, that's
what's going to help developthem to be more respectful to
you and to others, because nowwe're teaching versus correcting
.
Now am I saying don't correct?
No, I'm not saying that.
(10:52):
I'm saying we should get inposition to teach first and then
follow up with correction asneeded.
And the problem with me, thegap with me, was I wasn't
teaching.
I was in correcting mode andhoped that would teach, but
actually what it did was instillfear into my kids, and I really
(11:14):
didn't want that, because Ineeded to be respected.
What I thought they wererespecting me, and actually they
were in fear of me.
Hmm, think about that.
Now, is that what you want foryour kids?
No, you want them to fear youor do you want them to respect
(11:34):
you?
Yeah, because if they dosomething and to go back, engage
with them about the bad thingthey did.
Wouldn't you prefer to have adiscussion of why they did it?
If you do it again, here arethe consequences of your
(11:56):
behavior.
That's teaching, that'sdirecting, and I wish I knew
that back when I was raising mykids.
Now I'm not saying I was ahorrible mom, but there was
opportunity to do better.
So, moms, I'm pleading with youand I rarely do this, I rarely
(12:20):
plead with people, but I'mpleading with you.
Please take the time to sitdown and educate your children
or your child.
At the end of the day, they aregoing to need to have that
strong self-esteem as theynavigate this negative world.
(12:43):
They're going to need that.
You're going to need it.
They need to know what respectis.
They need to know whatdisrespect is.
They need to know whatdisrespect is.
Let's start with respect first,right Now, when they get into
(13:04):
these relationships loverelationship or when they start
school or while they're inschool, to treat people with
kindness and learn how toresolve conflict in a positive
manner.
That's respect.
I respect your opinion.
I don't agree with it, but Irespect you and that's fine, and
(13:28):
we move on and we live happilyever after.
Now.
We're not taking that conflictwith us.
We know what side you stand on,what side I stand on, and we
can still be friends.
Again, moms, teach yourchildren or your child about
respect.
If you enjoyed today's episode,leave me some feedback.
I would love to hear from youand I would like to know if
(13:52):
there's a character seed youwant me to talk about in the
future and I can do my researchon that and put something
together.
If that's what you need and,again, if you did enjoy this
episode, tell another single mom, or tell another mom, right,
because you don't know whatpeople are going through.
(14:14):
They may be encountering someissues with their child or their
children when it comes torespect and maybe something that
was said today might help themget over that hurdle.
All right, you have a wonderfulday, a fantastic week, great
month.
Take care.
Hey ladies, welcome to the Mom2Mentor podcast.
If this is your first timejoining, welcome If you are a
repeat listener.
Thank you for your loyalty.
These last few episodes thatI've been doing for those of you
that have been following meknow I have been planting a
(00:23):
virtual character garden.
It's all about using theimagination, right?
We don't want things to getboring and I want you to
continue to come back, but thisshould hopefully allow you to
use your imagination, and thispodcast is all about encouraging
your parenting skills.
Yes, it's designed forencouraging and motivating
(00:47):
single moms, but if you are amom in general, this is for you
too.
I'm going to continue down thepath of planting virtual
character seeds.
As you know, in the past I'vetalked about confidence and
honesty, and today I want totalk about respect and what that
is and what it means, and whywe need it and why we need to
(01:11):
teach our children.
I cannot stress enough we aremore than just moms and
nurturers.
We are mentors.
Our children are modeling theirbehavior after hours.
How do I know?
I'm a mom and I've seen my kidsdo some things.
I didn't think they saw I wasdoing, but once I saw it and
(01:34):
especially if it was negative,I'm like, oh my gosh, I got to
do better.
Thankfully they saw.
I think they saw more positivebehaviors than negative.
And that's really the point,moms.
We're not perfect.
We make mistakes, and it's okay, and sometimes our kids see
those mistakes.
We just got to try to do better.
(01:56):
I'm talking about respect againtoday.
What is respect and why do weneed it?
Respect is crucial forfostering positive relationships
.
It creates a harmoniousenvironment and promotes
individual well-being and itreally does.
It also acknowledges theinherent worth and dignity of
(02:29):
others.
It leads to strongerconnections or stronger
relationships, and anytime yougot two people involved, it's a
relationship, not just loverelationship, but I'm just
talking about in general in lifethat you're going to have to
interact with people.
It improves communication andprovides a greater sense of
safety and trust.
Respect is the ultimatecharacteristic that will help
(02:52):
support a healthy society.
Right?
If we respect each other, weain't got to kill and cuss out
and all this other stuff that wedo when we disagree with each
other.
Right, we have to acknowledgeit's okay.
At that point of view, I don'thave to agree with you, but I
also don't have to hate you.
This is where I respect you.
(03:14):
It's okay that you believe inthis and I don't.
That's okay, but we should nottake that opportunity to
disrespect someone because oftheir beliefs.
Why is it important?
At an individual level, itbuilds self-esteem, self-worth
(03:35):
and your confidence increases.
What does confidence mean to me?
Strength right.
It promotes emotionalwell-being.
It promotes emotionalwell-being.
It creates a safe andsupportive atmosphere where
people can feel comfortable.
You don't want to go somewherewhere you're going to be
disrespected.
It is extremely important thatwe acknowledge people's
(03:59):
differences.
We acknowledge that differencewithout being negative about it.
Additionally, individualrespect it encourages personal
growth.
Respecting yourself and othersencourages a willingness to
(04:19):
learn, adapt and grow as aperson.
Adapt and grow as a person.
It fosters a sense of belonging.
It's respectful interactions.
It contributes to feelings ofinclusion and connection within
a community or a group and myassumption is it's mostly moms
(04:41):
that are listening to thispodcast.
Why you feel comfortable?
Because I've gone through someof the things you're going
through and you can relate, youcan identify.
So you feel comfortable.
You feel respected Because onceupon a time ago, because I'm an
older single mom, it was prettyrough out here ladies as far as
(05:02):
respect is concerned as asingle mom, and most of the time
.
I didn't get it because I waslooked at as a whore, because I
wasn't married, and that's notfair.
I was disrespected becausenobody knew my story.
Let's talk about what respectdoes in a relationship, and
(05:25):
while I present this to you, youcan also extract some of these
little nuggets for yourself,right?
Especially if you're in arelationship now.
And while you're learning thesethings, you can pass it along
to your child or your children.
What does respect do for arelationship?
It strengthens bonds.
It's essential for building andmaintaining a healthy
(05:48):
relationship with your boo.
You have to respect each other.
You can't call each other outof your name and think that's
okay.
You can disagree, just do it ina manner that it doesn't go to
a level of disrespect.
It facilitates effectivecommunication.
(06:08):
When individuals feel respected, they are more likely to be
open and honest.
Yeah, so that's important in arelationship, and many
relationships die because of thedisrespect and dishonesty.
It also helps reduce conflictdishonesty.
(06:33):
It also helps reduce conflict.
Respectful interactions canprevent and resolve conflicts by
fostering understanding,empathy and compromise.
But if we're not willing to dothat, then guess what?
That lack of conflictresolution is going to create an
uncomfortable environment forboth of you all.
And then if your children areinvolved, oh my gosh.
(06:53):
This is why they stressed outbecause of the environment.
They're in right.
Because of that negativity,they're seeing and hearing All
right.
So what does respect do?
As it relates to society?
It creates a fair environment.
It ensures everyone is treatedequally.
I don't care if we do see ayoung man, older man, on the
(07:19):
side of the highway with thesign saying homeless or can you
give me a dollar, two dollars.
We still want to respect him,just as if someone was walking
in the building next to uswithout the sign, asking for
help.
It promotes equality and that'swhat you have to explain to
your children.
And it doesn't matter ourculture, our sizes, gender.
(07:46):
We respect everyone the sameequally, and that's how you
explain that to your children.
You don't disrespect someonebecause they look different from
you.
It also fosters a positiveenvironment and we need that.
There's just so much negativitygoing on right now that if we
(08:08):
can be that change agent as itrelates to being positive, then
we need to do it, and then itencourages moral behavior to
treat others with kindness.
The long story short is youtreat everyone with kindness, no
matter who they are one withkindness, no matter who they are
(08:35):
, and especially you, mom,because you deserve respect as
the mom, as the nurturer and nowas the mentor.
Your children shouldn't talk toyou any kind of way.
You know one of the things as Iwas raising my kids.
You know one of the things as Iwas raising my kids, I did not
(08:58):
do a good job with educatingthem and teaching them because I
didn't know any better.
So often their teaching camefrom me correcting them or
correcting a bad behavior, butthis is what we need to adopt,
mom.
A bad behavior, but this iswhat we need to adopt, mom.
Instead of focusing oncorrection, let's introduce
(09:21):
direction.
When I say direction, I'mtalking about teaching mode.
Right, because that's what thispodcast is all about is
mentoring, teaching, learningand paying it forward.
Learning and paying it forwardBecause had I done more
direction slash teaching, thenthere probably wouldn't have
been much correction involved.
And really, when you get in thecorrection arena, you're just
(09:46):
correcting that behavior.
You're still not teaching.
At least for me, I still wasn'tteaching.
I was just in that setting ofjust correcting the behavior.
Hey, you don't do that.
Don't ever do that again.
That's not right.
But I never said this is whyit's not right.
Okay, and as a result of notexplaining a why it's not right,
(10:09):
then guess what?
There was more of a sense offear with me because, depending
on what I had to do to correctthe behavior, versus them saying
, oh, I get it.
Now I shouldn't do this becausewhen we get into teaching mode,
(10:32):
that's what's going to helpbuild their self-esteem, that's
what's going to help developthem to be more respectful to
you and to others, because nowwe're teaching versus correcting
.
Now am I saying don't correct?
No, I'm not saying that.
(10:52):
I'm saying we should get inposition to teach first and then
follow up with correction asneeded.
And the problem with me, thegap with me, was I wasn't
teaching.
I was in correcting mode andhoped that would teach, but
actually what it did was instillfear into my kids, and I really
(11:14):
didn't want that, because Ineeded to be respected.
What I thought they wererespecting me, and actually they
were in fear of me.
Hmm, think about that.
Now, is that what you want foryour kids?
No, you want them to fear youor do you want them to respect
(11:34):
you?
Yeah, because if they dosomething and to go back, engage
with them about the bad thingthey did.
Wouldn't you prefer to have adiscussion of why they did it?
If you do it again, here arethe consequences of your
(11:56):
behavior.
That's teaching, that'sdirecting, and I wish I knew
that back when I was raising mykids.
Now I'm not saying I was ahorrible mom, but there was
opportunity to do better.
So, moms, I'm pleading with youand I rarely do this, I rarely
(12:20):
plead with people, but I'mpleading with you.
Please take the time to sitdown and educate your children
or your child.
At the end of the day, they aregoing to need to have that
strong self-esteem as theynavigate this negative world.
(12:43):
They're going to need that.
You're going to need it.
They need to know what respectis.
They need to know whatdisrespect is.
They need to know whatdisrespect is.
Let's start with respect first,right Now, when they get into
(13:04):
these relationships loverelationship or when they start
school or while they're inschool, to treat people with
kindness and learn how toresolve conflict in a positive
manner.
That's respect.
I respect your opinion.
I don't agree with it, but Irespect you and that's fine, and
(13:28):
we move on and we live happilyever after.
Now.
We're not taking that conflictwith us.
We know what side you stand on,what side I stand on, and we
can still be friends.
Again, moms, teach yourchildren or your child about
respect.
If you enjoyed today's episode,leave me some feedback.
I would love to hear from youand I would like to know if
(13:52):
there's a character seed youwant me to talk about in the
future and I can do my researchon that and put something
together.
If that's what you need and,again, if you did enjoy this
episode, tell another single mom, or tell another mom, right,
because you don't know whatpeople are going through.
(14:14):
They may be encountering someissues with their child or their
children when it comes torespect and maybe something that
was said today might help themget over that hurdle.
All right, you have a wonderfulday, a fantastic week, great
month.
Take care.
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