What do you want for your child?
If you are like most parents, you want your child to grow up happy and healthy, with a strong sense of self worth. You want her to make healthy choices and become a successful, self-reliant adult. The most powerful tool that parents have in maximizing their children’s happiness and success in life is a strong, positive, connected parent-child relationship in which the parent is the loving leader.
It is this relationship, more than anything else, that contributes to a child’s happiness and positive feelings about himself. It is also the key to positive behavior. But what happens when our own reactivity gets in the way of the relationship? When our child tantrums, or refuses to go to sleep, or argues about every rule, and we snap or yell or treat our children harshly out of frustration? When homework and too-busy schedules feel overwhelming for everyone? What happens then is that no one is truly happy. Children’s behavior will worsen, and parents’ tempers will fray. It becomes a vicious cycle. The parent feels remorse or resentment or anger or guilt (or all of these!) and the child feels unhappy, certain that he must be the cause of the parent’s negative feelings. This causes the child to act out, and the parent to react, and . . . around it goes. . |
How parent coaching can help
Most of us parent the way we were parented (or the opposite), and that is not always the best model. If you would like help in turning your relationship with your child around so that it is easier and more joyful for both of you, parent coaching can help.
We will begin by clarifying your goals and the changes you want to see in your family. Then, in most cases, we will put in place some simple and effective strategies for simplifying your family life that will reduce stress almost immediately and allow us room to work on connection. The payoff is less stress and more joy for both you and your children. We will work as partners for a minimum of three months, and often longer. Coaching will challenge you, but it will also sustain you and energize you as the quality of your family's life improves. I am available for telephone or Skype sessions, and in my Grayslake office for local clients, if you prefer. Sessions last 45 minutes on average and are usually scheduled weekly. Everything we discuss is confidential, and you will feel supported and not judged in any way. Coaching is an active, co-creative process in partnership that can help you to relax and feel more confident, successful, and happy as a parent. |