I’m not talking here about formal mentoring, although that is a very wonderful thing to do. What I am talking about is just showing the children you know ways to be happy and responsible adults. One of my proudest moments came from a young friend of mine who told her grandmother, “You know, I’ve always thought that you had to be married to be happy, but now I’m no longer scared of being single. Faye seems to be one of the happiest people I know, and she’s not married.”

This week, let’s be conscious of the messages we send to children around us. Are we saying, by our example, that it’s okay to snap at others when we’re grumpy or things don’t go our way? Do we show that it’s okay to shortchange a business because “it’s only a few cents and corporations make a lot of money”? Do we show them that our work is meaningful, no matter what it is?

I’ve recently been hanging out with a three-year-old, and I have become painfully aware that children soak up messages right and left from all sorts of sources. Let’s make sure we send them the right ones.