Parenting Class
by Shavonn Barrett
Thanks to Teresa and Frank Matz at The Family Connection, I had the pleasure of organizing a 10-week Parenting class held at Recovery Café. Each week we reviewed material, ate dinner together and gathered to diligently learn about breaking unhealthy cycles in our parenting roles, with our children present- ages newborn to 18.
We played games, were assigned weekly homework, made craft projects at home and more! We challenged our belief systems around parenting and where they came from. Personal benefits for my family include holding weekly family meetings, having more fun and spending quality time together.
Quotes:
“Include your children in choosing discipline and do
weekly meetings to build a bond.”
“One-on-one time with each kid, communication that works instead of yelling or accusing, knowing each child is different and valuing their input and family meetings are super important.”
“Each kid is different, and you have to try different things until you get it right.”
“Parenting class polished my current skills as a mom and gave me additional tools to connect with my pre-teens. I had the opportunity to spend time with other parents. The greatest gift was discovering that I am the Mom I always wanted, and I am healing childhood traumas by being that parent that I didn’t have.”
“I learned the importance of weekly family meetings, letting your kids make mistakes to learn, being silly and having fun, including the kids in cooking and cleaning up, most importantly creating and displaying our own Family Crest with our values on it.”