Can a relative be a mentor?
Submitted by Jules on May 11 2000 15:08:39
In reply to A long Statement -- Critical Comments Welcome! submitted by Chislon on May 10 2000 20:17:47
|
Chislon, Great stuff, certainly something I missed out on when younger, but have thankfully made up for more recently with an older mentor who has invited to me stay with him and his family a number of times. (I'm early 30s and he's early 40s.) I'm wondering about the need for the mentor to always be outside the family. It's only in recent times that the "nuclear family" (2 parents and 2.4 kids) has emerged as a significant way of living, and it has deprived boys of the natural contact with other men (uncles, older cousins, etc.) that they would have had in the past in an extended family or tribal group. Assuming that the father is often not the best mentor, then the extended family is definitely a better environment for kids than the nuclear family. When we read about familes in the Bible we perhaps tend to think of nuclear familes, but that's not what it was like in Bible times. Maybe the conservative Christian "save the family" campaigns are working with the wrong definition of family. With Christian love, Jules |
Follow ups: