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| Crazy must also be passed on... |
I have done so many parenting and post domestic violence courses it would make your head spin. Bringing Up Great kids just finished today.
Awesome information, not the least of which comes from other parents and carers.
Everytime I come into one of these groups the nymph of prejudgement sits on my shoulder, it looks around and wants to start drawing imaginary boxes around the fabulous array of individuals I see, some known, some unknown. I do what I regularly do is tell it to hush and lets see what happens. I never fail to be blown away by peoples stories. The foster carers that have had hundreds of children under their roofs, most of whom were very troubled and quite often mentally challenged in someway. The mother of seven who just lost her husband to suicide who is somehow still walking around and getting her kids to school and is struggling to deal with the varying degrees of her children's grief — never mind her own. The islamic lady with not much english, who is living between cultures and is puzzled about how to find balance in her life... The list of experiences is endless.
Yet the same thing brings us all together... seeking. The search for ideas on how to parent, we want to be better. Here let me exclude in some courses I have attended (particularly court ordered ones) the depressingly abundant number of admittedly uninterested parties who were like "Just get my piece of paper and get out of here" and when asked "Did you not get anything out of this course?" brazenly answered "Nah! It was a bunch of B*** S****" (insert yobo Australian accent here... not being racist, just situation specific - real story ladies and gentlemen).
So for those parents who seek of which I assume you are due to sitting on the net and having enough patience or morbid curiosity to sit through my online natter, I'd love to take the opportunity to shove some courses, books, organisations etc in your face should you feel the need to take it further and SEEK for yourselves.
I think this is particularly of help given the fact that most of the information regarding childrens brain development and age appropriate needs simply wasn't available till the last few years or so. Even professionals are constantly updating as the science grows, and given that we are the first point of call for our kids, shouldn't we then take it upon ourselves to be just as knowledgable about them as their childcare teacher (feel free to disagree).
So let me break it down, for any of my reader feel free to add to this list in the comments section, knowledge is power and I can only help with Australia, and the internet is our greatest point to share information with others, so share on!
Bringing Up Great Kids
I just finished this course today. It mainly covers not how to cope with behaviours, but how to understand the behaviours, why they are their. It talks about:
- The messages we have received about parenting.
- The messages we have retained and assimilated about parenting
- The messages that we pass on to our children
- Brain development through the ages
- Mindfulness in parenting
- Self awareness
- self care
- Parenting goals and outcomes
Awesome course. Simply constructed in a way that makes sense. I would recommend this one to parents of ALL ages as it works on the basis that once you understand why the child is acting a certain way, you can better deal with the behaviour as you will understand that the behaviour is only symptomatic of what is underneath.
It doesn't have all the answers just some.
Written by the Australian Childhood Foundation - they can be found on www.childhood.org.au or Freecall: 1800 176 453 for more information on the program or to find a service provider in your area.
Grassroots Parenting
This course was very basic. Looking at parenting from the ground up. A lot of parents who had lost their children into state custody were court ordered into this course.
- What are children's needs?
- How to parent in a very basic way?
- Ideas on food, play activities, child safety.
- What happens with children at what age.
- Expectations and communication in an age appropriate way
- Age appropriate behaviours and safe discipline strategies
- Self care
Really repetitive, it is as the name suggests "Grassroots", I was lucky had a great facilitator who had some awesome age appropriate play ideas. I would suggest it mainly for people with children 0-12yrs.
Provider in this case was Catholic Care. Please don't be put off, Catholic Care are just another funded service provider, they in no way bring religion into any of their social services work. Check them out at http://www.catholiccare.org/families or contact them on Ph: 02 93905377.
Keeping Kids in Mind
One of the most awesome courses and heartbreaking at the same time. This one is for post separation/post divorce parenting. Be warned almost everyone in this room is court ordered or court suggested to be here and they don't believe that they need it. Never the less, the information, particularly on emotion coaching in this course is really important. The focus of this course is wholly and solely on the children and what children experience going through the breakdown of the parents or carers relationship and post relationship management to minimise the damage on the child or to heal damage already done.
The course is written by a bunch of child psychologists, counsellors etc and is quite simply heart breaking - but necessary.
Anyone who had children and has been through, or is going through a break up this one is invaluable and gives a lot of insight and management skills to manage yourself and try to make peace with the other party for the sake of the children.
Provider was Catholic Care (as above) but I know this one is conducted by other orgs as well.
I'll try to add some more at a later time, but it's school pick up and I have to go.
Peace & Love
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