A thriving future starts with thriving children, and thriving children come from empowered parents.
To cultivate thriving children, we need healthy parenting practices. It's not who we are as individuals, but how we parent that shapes our children's future. This distinction is crucial because it highlights that our methods and approaches in parenting—our ways of being—are what truly influence our children’s development.
The Challenge: A Lack of Support for Parents
The saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child," not "It takes a village to birth a child," yet the support given to parents is often limited to the early stages, around birth.
While we nurture and cherish children with love and care, we sadly do not extend the same support to the parents. Instead, parents frequently face judgment on issues like picky eating, screen time, tantrums, and what not, without recognizing that these challenges may stem from a lack of adequate support.
In today’s fast-paced world, parents need more support than ever before. Unfortunately, the systems that should provide this support are often inadequate. As a result, many parents find themselves depleted, struggling to balance the demands of parenting with other necessary aspects of life.
My Personal Reflection
When I became a mother during Melbourne's stage-4 lockdowns in December 2020, I was filled with gratitude for any support I could get. While becoming a mother has been the single most joyful experiences of my life, parenting the way I want to has been an ongoing challenge. Not because I find it difficult to parent, but because the systemic support I need from my "village" is lacking.
As an immigrant the lack of the "village" multiplies.
This challenge isn't unique to me. Many parents today face an uphill battle, forced to choose between effective parenting and other essential aspects of life. The essential aspects are often what is needed for survival. Parenting, which is central to thriving, has thus become a luxury for many families. Without adequate support, we are often having to choose between focusing on parenting or focusing on aspects of life necessary for survival, like work or other commitments.
As families, we are surviving rather than thriving.
Because we are being forced to choose between the two. This should not be the case.
The Solution: Empowering Parents Through Better Practices
While we work towards better systems, we must also focus on building the capacity of our parenting practices in the present. Systems change takes time, but parents and communities need support now. This is where my Parenting Practices coaching and education programs come in.
Informed by my lived experience as an immigrant parent and my education in Clinical and Positive Psychology, my coaching is designed to empower parents from diverse backgrounds.
It equips parents with the tools they need to parent effectively, even in the absence of systemic support.
By nurturing parents, we ultimately nurture the entire family, fostering wellbeing and success for both parents and children.
Join the Movement for Thriving Families
If we value our children, we must invest in our parenting practices. The wellbeing of parents directly influences their capacity to parent, and in turn, the wellbeing of children depends on their thriving development.
Nurtured Parents = Nurtured Kids = Thriving Families
If you are a parent, I invite you to reach out for a free consultation to discover how my Parenting Practices programs can support you.
If you know a parent who might benefit, please share this with them—it could be the nurturing support they need.
And if you are a school or community leader, consider investing in these programs for your community. After all, what's better than one thriving family? A whole community of thriving families.
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