The activity of working with a preservice teacher during an internship is a complex and intensive one representing a huge investment on the part of mentor teachers. Given this, it is not surprising that the effects on mentor teachers when their preservice teachers struggle or fail would be complex. We began to question how preservice teacher failure may affect the mentor teacher's conceptualization of herself as a teacher educator, beliefs about what it means to help someone learn to teach, and in what ways it might affect her conceptualization of herself as a teacher. Yet little has been written about the implications preservice teachers' struggles and failures may have for mentor teachers. This article represents an opportunity not only to share our stories and what we've learned from our experiences with student teachers who struggled, and in some cases, failed to complete the internship, but to also place this issue on the table for wider discussion and investigation.