Leader/Follower Relationship in the Single Parent Home

I am on a personal quest to help single parents become acquainted with their potential in developing leader/follower relationships in their homes by recognizing the role they partake in mentoring and discipling their children. According to the US Census Bureau, in the year 2000, at least 50% of the US population was made up of single parent homes. I believe single parents have the power within them to reduce those statistics as they begin to initiate leadership/follower relationships in their homes.

To create a leader/follower relationship, parents and children can begin with understanding the role of mentor, protege, and discipling. According to Chip R. Bell, author of Managers as Mentors, a mentor is one who focuses on developing the skills of the protege or mentorees in order to make him independent and exercise the gifts and talents within him to fulfill his purpose in life. As a former preschool administrator, I have personally witnessed parents' excitement as they discovered the potentials in their children's lives and encouraged the children to participate in activities that would enhance those potentials.

Another area that parents take part in a child's life is discipling. Discipling can be seen as a parent to child relationship and as a teacher to student relationship. Discipling can be teaching the child about the family values and expectations in living a life that may be in alignment with traditions and standards (mores and folkways) of the family; home schooling and religious education just to name a few. One example of discipling I experienced was when my sons participated in sports. I recognized their love for baseball and signed them up for little league. As I mentored them through the 'atta-boy' Rah-Rah Mentality, I also interjected discipling, which helped them recognize the integrity of the leader/follower relationship practiced at home. We soon developed a strong leader/follower relationship because I could relate to their needs and they responded to my leadership. The relationship model was transforming my sons. I was becoming a transformational leader by practicing trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect, which motivated them to do more than originally expect to do. (Bell, 2002) This transformational process began to overflow into our home life enhancing the leader/follower relationship between my sons and me.

The mentoring and discipling I exercised in my sons' upbringing has created opportunities for them to exercise the leader/follower relationship in transforming their lives. Today, my children are reaping the benefits from the leader/follower relationship practiced in our home. My oldest son is enlisted in the military and experiencing, first hand, leader/follower relationship; my youngest son is a freshman in college and is being mentored by his professor.

In retrospect, the leader/follower relationship is practiced everyday in our lives. People mentor mentorees/followers to become independent leaders. I believe discipling is the balancing aspect of leadership because of the role of integrity and ethics needed to produce a wise and discerning mentor in preparation for leadership. Single parenting plays a powerful role in leader/follower relationships in families. Mentoring and discipling according to the definitions in this article will help prepare them for their future as well as inspire others who will follow them in taking hold of leadership responsibilities in their lives. As mentoring and discipling are recognized and practiced in the homes of single parents, a wave of renovation will change the leader/follower relationships' in our community and have an impact on single parenting. Here is my Rah! Rah! Atta boy to the single parents who have a desire to see their children succeed in life and lead others into the future!

Bibliography

Bell, Chris R. 2002. Managers as Mentors.Building Partnerships for Learning. 2^nd Ed., completely revised and expanded. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. San Francisco, CA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciple_%28Christianity%29

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S1201&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_