Relational Parenting*
"Parenting Rock Steady:  Nurturing Our Children with Power, Courage, and Wisdom"

Relational Parenting focuses on defining and enhancing the parent-child relationship in order to play a positive influential role in our children's development. Learn how to distinguish between what is parental enabling and empowering. By exploring the way we were parented, we will begin to gain a better understanding of our current parenting style and prevents us from the detrimental effects of "pendulum parenting". This program also focuses on how our principles, values, and beliefs impact our relationship with our children, including how we manage stress and difficult circumstances in our life. It is through these adverse experiences that the greatest lessons for our children are manifested.

Includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Become a positive influence in your children's life
• Incorporate CRUTCHES in your parenting experience
• Communicate effectively with your children
• Explore various parenting strategies
• Understand the harmful affects stress has on parenting and families
• Apply strategies to effectively manage stress in your life in order to positively enhance your parenting experience
• Discover the influence of encouragement and empowerment versus the detriment of enabling and criticism
• Explore the emotionality of parenting
• Apply the concepts of RUTH (Respect, Understanding, Trust, and Honesty)
• Correct negative behavior by employing RUTH
• Help your children develop a positive self-concept
• Engage in relational mutuality and reciprocity
• Create impressionable learning opportunities during challenging moments
• Become familiar with the "18-year-old newborn" perspective
• Explore how you were parented and how you parent: making the connection
• Prioritize taking the time; having fun
• Understanding the detrimental effects of personally compensating for our own childhood experiences through "pendulum parenting"
• Make sense of attachment styles
• Become aware of the various environmental factors that impact parenting
• Recognize and understand children as mirrors
• Encourage creativity
• Lead by example; setting the tone
• Promote a sense of belonging and contribution; feeling connected
• Understand the effectiveness and empowering outcomes of distant parenting
• Distinguish your role as a unique and irreplaceable guide versus a friend

*Incorporates components of the Lifestyle and Stress Management program.