Who Needs a Parent Coach?
Who needs a parent coach? The simplest answer is nobody. Having children is natural, so the general understanding is that becoming a parent is natural also. Historically families were built within traditions. Parenting skills were passed on from generation to generation because extended-family lived close and were very interactive in one another’s day-to-day life. I remember when statistics showed a family meant a mother, a father and 2.5 children. I never understood what these numbers meant, but possibly they were precursors to the families today. Families truly are not what they use to be.
Parents often feel lonely and isolated as they perpetuate the false premise that they need to figure out today’s challenges independently of any external assets or use of their intrinsic attributes. Parent Coaching is uniquely designed to support today’s weary, fully demanded, overtaxed, responsible parents. Family dynamics have drastically changed as the roles of mother and father have become distance from formal marriages and more centered on the independent, singular parent-child relationship.
The idea that we parent all our children the same is also false. Each parent-child relationship is unique. Parent Coaching allows parents to become more flexible in their relationships with their children while both are simultaneously and individually moving from one human developmental stage to the next. Concurrently the subtleties of each person are being shaped and honed as well. Just consider… what is normal and appropriate at 5 or 10 or 15 years old is not the same at 30, 40 or 50!
Parent Coaching offers a confidential encouraging resource of support that is based in authenticity not appeasement, along with ways to develop a parent’s internal qualities while staying alert to local community assets. A parent coach is equipped to partner with parents in order to effectively and efficiently empower them for the betterment of their family life. Parents who are able to ask for support tend to not replicate generational patterns of unhealthy behavior or unhelpful communications and instead build transformative legacies by recognizing and trying what they may not have experienced themselves while growing up.
Parent Coaching helps through dialogue, bringing awareness, gained insight and experiencing changes. Parents bring their concerns and practical real life examples to each session. This provides the information to discover clarity and seek change. The following are generalized categories and topics that can help narrow down scenarios that parents bring to a session.
- Support
- Family support, Caring Neighborhood, School Climate, Other Adult Relationships
- Empowerment
- Other Youth as Resources & Friendships, Service to Others, Safety
- Boundaries
& Expectations
- Family & School Boundaries, Adult Role Models, Positive Peer Influence, Appropriate Expectations
- Constructive
Use of Time
- Creative Activities, Youth Programs, Faith Communities, Time at Home
- Commitment
to Learning
- Reading, Achievement Motivation, School Engagement, Homework, Caring about School
- Positive
Values
- Helping Others, Social Justice, Integrity, Honesty, Responsibility, Restraint
- Social
Competence
- Planning & Decision Making, Healthy Conflict Resolution Interpersonal & Cultural Competence, Resistance Skills
- Positive
Identity
- Strengths & Drawbacks, Confidence, A Sense of Purpose & Future
Parent Coaching is the chance to bring back the kid in each of us and see life through the eyes of a child. Parenting is not about reliving our lives through our children, but rather managing, guiding and navigating with our children, so they will be empowered to engage life with their profound unrealized and untapped potential. Parent coaching can:
- decrease the pattern of constant turmoil and bickering over day-to-day routine activities
- increase responsibility and respect within each of your family relationships
- increase enjoyable family time
- encourage & galvanize your child’s self-esteem
Nothing happens overnight. Parenting and patience go hand-in-hand. However, commitment to our children is never a waste of time… only an uncultivated opportunity.
The family:
we were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. Erma Bombeck