Hello Rebecca,
Thank you for your post and the helping relationship example you described. Thankfully, the gentle steer and the nudge on your behalf were both well received.
A few things came to mind as I read this post. One would be did you inform or ask your son's girlfriend in advance if she wanted you to send her job postings? It sounds like she knew you would be sending these and/or didn't mind that you did this but I was just curious. It also appears that this could also have gone another direction if she had not expressed interest in receiving your help.
As you can see, there is a fine line we contend with from time to time when using the helping relationship to mentor, guide, and instruct. Some of the individuals will welcome help while others will struggle to accept it. What will you do to build trust to ensure that your help continues to be well received? Would you ask questions to help your clients to come up with a direction that they are most comfortable with? What else could you do to help them with suitable action plans? These are questions that you can ask yourself the next time you have to leverage these skills.
Good points in your post,
Charise