An unusual approach to a healthy relationship with the youth

One attitude that I adopted when I was almost their age and have kept up over all the years (even though, now, at my age, it is a ludicrous idea) is to view all my charges as “little brothers and sisters”

• This keeps a healthy attitude about the relationship – loving but not sexual ('My sister? Yuck!”).
  
• An older sibling loves the younger siblings dearly, will defend them fiercely and will tease them unmercifully.
  
• Unlike a parent figure, an older sibling is not interested in meddling in a younger sibling's private affairs nor running their lives for them.
  
• An older sibling is “worldly wise” and can help their younger siblings negotiate the tricky parts of growing up.
  
• An older sibling is a listening, but objective ear.