Parenting Classes

One day, I mentioned my frustration to my health care provider. She suggested I enroll in a parenting class provided by our health maintenance/insurance organization. 

Who me?! A parenting class?!

So, begrudgingly, I attended the classes.

Yes, a Parenting Class

Taught by a nurse and a nurse practitioner from the HMO, the class introduced 15 parent participants (of which only one was a social service mandate) to the “Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP)” program. The course consisted of strategies found to be effective in raising socially and emotionally healthy children. 

Parent Sharing, the Best Parenting Education

What I particularly liked in the classes was “parent sharing.” This happened when one parent asked about how to deal with an issue, and another would say something like, “Oh, that? I don’t have an issue with that because this is what I have done when that happens….”  I learned some of the best  parenting “strategies” from parent sharing. 

Over time, I came to embrace the class – strategies, parent sharing, and all. The program provided me with information to direct my child’s behavior with less stress and more consistent love and understanding. I prospered. And, excited about the things I learned, I wanted to spread the word. I set out to share them with others. This ignited my journey as a mental health and parenting educator.

Other Parenting Programs

Conflict Resolution

Soon after I completed the STEP program, a course on conflict resolution came to town. Conflict resolution  or conflict management interested me. Even though I had been having a challenging time with my toddler, my husband and I had some communication challenges too. Again, the classes delivered. They  provided me with an arsenal of additional skills and strategies to implement whenever I needed them.

EPIC

Then, after this, I became a trainer of the EPIC parenting education program.  EPIC stands for “Every Person Influences Children” developed by Bob Wilson from Buffalo, NY. Frustrated by the high rate of local unintended teen pregnancies, a  concerned parent in our town wanted to do something about the problem. Her pregnancy prevention strategy included providing parents of teens in the community with a parenting program. Along with some other moms, I traveled to Buffalo and received the EPIC training. We then came back home and started facilitating parent groups. 

A Combination of Courses

After training the EPIC program for a while, I thought parents could benefit from combining it with both the STEP and conflict resolution classes. Taking  a little bit from EPIC and STEP and most of the information from the conflict management course, I developed a new parenting education program. 

I then taught the course at the NY State Education Dept. Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) Adult Education Program in Syracuse, NY. I enjoyed teaching the new curriculum. But, again, more importantly, what was best was the parent sharing.

Parent-to-Parent – Head of the Class

What about you? 

Have you particpated in parenting education? If you did, was it in-person or virtual?   Did you like it?  Why or why not?  Do you have a child rearing tip or strategy that works/worked well for you that you’d like to share?Tell us about it in the Comments.

I am writing about parenting because it’s my hope that parents will find my to-be-published book “Adventures with phearnik!™” useful. Find out more about the book here. 

This post is about how I first got into mental health education as a parenting educator.  I got into parenting education because I wanted/needed my toddler to behave! 

I mentioned my frustrations to my health care provider.  She suggested I enroll in our HMO’s parenting class.  I was hesitant.  Weren’t parenting classes for parents involved with child protective services? Parents who were abusing their kids and had them taken away?  That wasn’t me.  I was just getting a little frustrated.  I ended up going, albeit begrudgingly, and feeling embarrassed.  And once there, I was so glad I went!  I came to love the class.  (By the way, of about 15 participants in the class, only one parent was mandated to go.)

Taught by HMO staff, the class used the “Systematic Training for Effective Parenting” program (Dinkmeyer and McKay). These techniques were found effective in raising socially and emotionally healthy children.  I loved the strategies and learning to direct my child’s behavior with love and understanding and calmer.  I loved it so much that I just had to spread the word.  This is me.  I am an educator through and through.  When I learn or find out about something that I get excited about, I want to share it.  So, I set out to be a parenting educator.

More Useful Parenting Information

Soon after I completed the STEP classes, another opportunity arose. A short course on conflict resolution came to town.  I like the term “conflict management” better as conflict cannot always be resolved. Something we learned in the course.  I sought out conflict resolution (management). Even though I struggled with my toddler’s behavior at times, my husband and I engaged in some arguments too.  (Makes one wonder how much that was contributing to the toddler’s behavior, right?) Anyways, I went to the conflict classes and loved what I learned there too! 

Right after that, I signed up to become a trainer of the EPIC parenting education program.  EPIC stands for “Every Person Influences Children” developed by Bob Wilson from Buffalo, NY.  A keen, visionary mom in our town was frustrated by the high rate of unintended teen pregnancies.  She believed in addressing the problem. Her strategy included providing parents in the community with a parenting program. The mom thought it could be an effective preventative strategy to help bring the rate down.  Along with some other moms, I traveled to Buffalo and received the  training and became an EPIC trainer.  We then came back home and started training parent groups. 

I trained the EPIC program for a little while but I felt that it wasn’t enough.  It was my belief that the parenting classes could use some of what I learned in the STEP program. In addition, it definitely needed pretty much everything I learned in the conflict resolution classes!  So, I developed my own parenting education course. 

I took a little bit from EPIC and a little bit from STEP and used most of the information from the conflict resolution classes.   I started teaching my curriculum at the NY State Education Dept. Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) Adult Education Program in Syracuse, NY.  And guess what?  Yep, you got it!  I loved teaching that parenting education curriculum!  I especially loved getting parents together.  Parents who like me had some struggle with parenting their children and were hungry for some help, some answers. 

Parent-to-Parent, the Best Parenting Education

We had so much fun in those classes!  It was great to be able to facilitate their sharing of issues but, most importantly, the ideas and strategies that worked for them.  They may have been having an issue in one area of parenting but in other areas, they had great ideas for the other parents.  This was one of the things that I particularly liked in the STEP classes, when a parent would say, “Oh, that?  I don’t have an issue with that because this is what I have done when that happens….”  The parent sharing was the best.  Through my years as an educator and trainer, my colleagues and I would always agree that one of our most important teaching strategies was to facilitate the sharing of ideas from the students or participants to one another.

Commenting on blogs is a terrific way for readers to share their stories and what’s worked for them when it comes to parenting children.  What about you?  Have you ever participated in a parenting class?   Which one?  Did you like it?  Why or why not?  Do you have a child rearing tip or strategy that works/worked well for you that you’d like to share?  I would love to hear about it in the Comments/Reply section below and, as always, thank you for reading!