Are you confused about how to parent your kids effectively?
You’re not alone. Parenting today is a challenge like no other.
Learn how to parent effectively in today’s environment for both your primary kids and your teens. With primary aged kids, I work with the parents alone. With teens, I work with your teens and collaboratively with the parents, to navigate this difficult stage of life.
With the constant exposure to social media and the world at their finger tips, our kids present a totally different parenting challenge than we have ever known.
One of the biggest issues that I am seeing as a Counsellor these days, is teenagers with identity and self-esteem problems.
Why are our kids struggling so much with their own identities?
How come they are they developing eating disorders, drug and alcohol problems at such a young age?
Why are they so disrespectful to parents and other adults?
Parents have a challenge like no other today navigating the path with their teens.
In an effort to support our kids, some parents will helicopter, some will try and be a best friend, some will keep a tight reign, some will allow everything, some will find a balance.
Every parent is parenting with an abundance of love. Every parent is trying their best to raise their kids in the best way they can.
But without the right knowledge and tools, even the best attempts may not be effective.
Parenting can be a minefield to navigate. In the early years it is often physically draining with lack of sleep and endless chasing of toddlers. In later years it becomes more of a mental challenge and of course throughout all there are the emotional challenges.
Taking the time to get some help in how to approach parenting in a healthy way can make home life so much easier and enjoyable for everyone. My approach is to put a lot of effort into getting your parenting right in the first years of life. Throughout primary school years, you can pave the way to having a safe and more enjoyable experience with your teens.
The other focus we have as parents now is teens and their phones, social media and the vast amount of information they are exposed to. There is no ‘right’ way to manage this difficult time, we work towards what is going to be effective (and safe), for your teen and your family.
Lately I have worked with many ‘difficult’ teens. What we learnt was that changing a few things at home in the parent/child relationship can make an immense difference. Talking to both the teen and the parents separately and then helping to bridge that communication gap has been really effective for family units.
Learn healthy ways to provide love, self-esteem, discipline, rules, boundaries, consequences, communication and respect with your children. This will help to set your kids up for a healthy future that you can help guide and nurture.
In sessions with parents, I work with you to see what is happening in your home and what your concerns are for your kids. We discuss a plan and strategies to help shape a healthy home. We look at changing existing unhealthy behaviours and promoting healthy routines. I prefer to work with parents to help determine how best to shape behaviour rather than work with the kids themselves.
When it comes to teens, our focus becomes how to support them and still keep safe boundaries as they learn who they are, how they fit in and navigate their way into the adult world with a healthy self-esteem.
I will help parents understand their teens. What are they really thinking? What challenges are they facing?
This is an area that I work closely with to help change. A teen with a healthy self-view is usually an easier teen to parent. Teens are generally really comfortable with video counselling too. After all, they tend to live on their technology!