Parenting Workshops

All Parenting Perspectives workshops are presented using our signature style that includes demonstrations to show parents the dos and don’ts of parenting, as well as effective tools and strategies in action.

Every workshop incorporates our unique “Principles for Conscious Parenting” that will guide you in any parenting challenge. Workshops help parents deepen their connection to their children and foster self- love, responsibility, resiliency and self-esteem. You are guaranteed to leave our workshops with new tools that you can begin using immediately. Each workshop is:

  • Designed for parents/caregivers of toddlers to teens. We will tailor the presentation for the specific audience.
  • 60-90 minutes or length can be customized to meet your needs.
  • Available for groups at schools, community events, daycare centers, churches, synagogues, playgroups or anywhere parents and caregivers gather.

Click on the title for the workshop’s description and ask us about topics you don’t see listed.

Power struggles can occur over just about anything. Some typical conflict arenas are bedtime, getting out the door, food, chores, getting dressed, homework and use of electronics. Battling with children creates anger, resentment, distance and rebellion. It is always lose-lose. Most parents are missing some necessary tools for getting things done without going to battle with their child. This workshop provides parents with the necessary ingredients for understanding the dynamics of power struggles, preventing power struggles, and redirecting them. In this fun and entertaining workshop, you will learn:

  • 12 specific strategies for preventing power struggles
  • 7 tips for getting out of power struggles when they do occur
  • 3 simple steps for setting limits guaranteed to make your life easier for years to come

“Tommy hit me! Tell him to stop.” Sound familiar? When siblings fight with each other it drives parents crazy. Siblings fight for many reasons and it is unrealistic to think that your children will never fight. However, persistent bickering and arguing creates stress for the entire family. In this interactive workshop parents will see insightful and entertaining demonstrations of three common mistakes that most parents make in an effort to put a stop to quibbling. These mistakes actually reinforce the very behavior that drives parents crazy. You will be taught helpful strategies to help your children develop the necessary skills to manage their own conflicts. You will learn:

  • Tools for lessening sibling rivalry and for strengthening your children’s relationships with each other
  • Common parenting traps and strategies for managing sibling conflict when it does arise
  • Tools for out of control, hitting, or verbally hurtful behavior
  • Strategies for families introducing a new baby to the household that will ease the challenges for the older sibling(s)
  • The benefits of sibling conflict
 

We live in a fast-paced world with many stressors. Parents and children have busy schedules; there is pressure to succeed and fit in; kids are “plugged in” and possessions are highly valued. Navigating all of this can be confusing and difficult for both parents and children. Keeping children grounded and connected while fostering responsibility and resilience is essential. In this fun and interactive workshop you will learn to:

  • Clarify and communicate values to your children
  • Deepen connections among family members
  • Encourage responsibility and resilience
    Set limits that work
  • Encourage meaningful family activities and traditions
  • Implement effective family meetings
  • Avoid raising over-indulged children
  • Avoid common parenting traps that can hurt children’s emotional development
 

Do you ever wonder why sometimes your discipline strategies work and sometimes they don’t? Do you find yourself disciplining your children in ways that don’t feel good in your heart? Do you wonder if your methods are effective? This enlightening and entertaining workshop helps parents understand what makes discipline effective and why some common discipline practices are unhelpful in the long run. Parents will gain insight into why children misbehave, and how best to meet their emotional needs.

Learn to:

  • Connect with your child, prevent misbehavior and gain cooperation
  • Set limits effectively
  • Discipline without yelling; get results without punishment
  • Use logical consequences effectively
  • Encourage responsibility
    Feel calmer and enjoy being a parent

Are you or your children pulling your hair out over homework? This fun and interactive workshop is guaranteed to reduce the power struggles and frustration that can erupt over homework. Learn to avoid common parenting traps that contribute to homework hassles for the entire family. This workshop will help you restore the peace in your home. Discover tools that will help you:

  • Set the stage for homework success
  • Maintain a strong connection with your child even when strong emotions erupt over homework
  • Encourage responsibility and self-motivation
  • Set limits that work
  • Reduce power struggles, meltdowns and tantrums
  • Help your child learn to cope with frustration
  • Avoid over indulging and rescuing
  • Build your child’s sense of pride and accomplishment

Teaching children to be respectful is critical. Many parents find themselves demanding respect from their children and feeling like they are falling short. They wonder what’s wrong with kids today and find themselves critical of how disrespectful they are. Find out why true respect cannot be commanded and why respect begins with the parents. In this fun and interactive workshop parents will learn the necessary ingredients for raising respectful children. They will also learn how to:

  • Set clear limits that work
  • Interact with children in ways that foster respect
  • Effectively deal with disrespectful behavior
  • Raise children who are responsible and resilient
  • Avoid common parenting traps that unknowingly promote rude behavior

Our kids live in a busy, fast-paced, electronic world that offers many opportunities and conveniences. However, with all the advantages of a technological world, there are also some concerns. Many kids are tuned in electronically, but tuned out emotionally. They are often attached to things yet disconnected from families and adults. They are overloaded with the latest information on celebrities but lack self-awareness. They are experts at being busy but are unable to be alone and quiet. In order for kids to feel grounded they must feel connected at home. This workshop helps parents know what is most important to help children develop coping skills and be successful in life. This workshop will help you discover ways to effectively give children your time, attention, and values. We will show you new ways of acknowledging their feelings, setting limits and empowering them with responsibility. This workshop is loaded with parenting tools and strategies for nurturing connection and helping children feel grounded.

Setting limits is one of the most critical aspects of child-rearing, and yet many parents find limit setting challenging or are uncertain of how set limits effectively.  This workshop makes limit setting simple and easy.  We will teach you the ABCD Plan for Limit Setting” that is guaranteed to make life smoother for years to come.   When parents know how to effectively and consistently set clear limits, there is little or no push back.  Explaining, lecturing, bribing, and power struggles diminish and life becomes more peaceful.  In this workshop parents will learn:

  • Why limits are critical to healthy development

  • Guidelines for making the ABCD Plan for Limit Setting” effective 

  • How to remain calm and confident when setting rules and limits

  • To help their children resist peer pressure and stand up for themselves

  • How to communicate your values to children

Many well-meaning parents unknowingly fall into parenting traps that interfere with raising responsible, resilient and confident children. This entertaining workshop exposes parents to these traps and shows them how to nurture children in ways that promote healthy development and foster their unique potential. Parents will appreciate the necessity of giving children their time, attention, values, and limits. They will learn why accepting their children’s feelings impact healthy development. And parents are guaranteed new ideas for deepening their own self-awareness that will ripple into gifts for the entire family.

Every parent wants to raise a successful child. To successfully meet the inevitable challenges that life brings, children must develop resiliency at home, school, and with peers. In an effort to make their children happy, many parents jump in to rescue them from frustration and disappointment. This entertaining and insightful workshop helps parents know when to step in and help and when not to get involved. We will provide practical, easy-to-implement strategies and creative approaches for parents that teach and encourage responsibility, self-motivation and resiliency. Particular emphasis will be given to homework and friendship/peer issues.

Discover strategies and tools to nurture the healthy development of your child and become the calm, confident, and joyful parent you want to be. This insightful workshop teaches you how to effectively and lovingly handle everyday parenting struggles and situations. Deepen your self-awareness and learn tools to help you remain calm when you feel like you are at the end of your rope.  Specific issues that will be addressed include:

  • Creating  a vision for the parent you want to be
  • Creating a strong foundation of love and connection
  • Responding to crying, tantrums and misbehavior in helpful ways
  • Disciplining effectively without yelling or punishing
  • Handling hurdles such as separation, hitting and bedtime struggles

Raising children is hard work. It is even tougher when you and your parenting partner are not on the same page. Make a date for this fun and interactive workshop to learn how to parent together successfully. Parents and their partners or co-parents will:

  • Discover common parenting goals
  • Learn key parenting strategies that will help you feel confident and effective
  • Learn effective communication strategies
  • Stay connected during times of disagreement
  • Create a vision for living the life you dream of

Does your child drive you crazy? Does he cling to you? Melt down when you change the routine? Regularly run and jump, freak out if it gets too loud? Forget what you just told him? Are tears and tantrums common in your home? Temperament is one of the most misunderstood and underrated influences on children’s behavior. Reduce conflict and misbehavior in your home by gaining insight into your child’s temperament. Yes! It matters how we nurture nature. Numerous practical tools will be offered for all temperament types.

Resilience is the ability to “bounce back” after a challenge. As adults, we know that this is sometimes easier said than done. Resiliency is a skill that must be nurtured and learned. In this workshop, parents will learn that raising resilient children means giving them opportunity to master and overcome challenges. Many parents today are “helicopter parents” diving in to rescue and save their children anytime they experience a pain, fear or challenge. Helicopter parenting undermines resiliency and leaves children feeling incapable and inadequate. In this workshop, parents will learn to:

  • Transform negative “I can’t” thinking into positive “Let me try that again” thinking
  • Create a loving and connected relationship with their child
  • Accept and acknowledge their child’s feelings
  • Be honest with their children rather than protect them from people or situations that may be uncomfortable

New evidence suggests that in our efforts to give children the best, we end up over-doing it and unknowingly create some negative consequences for them. Many of today’s parents are:

  • Over-involved in their children’s lives
  • Over-indulging by buying too much
  • Over-scheduling with too many activities
  • Over-pressuring kids by wanting them to succeed and be superstars
  • Over-praising in an effort to help them have good self-esteem
  • Over-stimulating by allowing excessive time on computers, videos, electronic games, and cell phones
  • Over-focusing on children’s happiness

Through entertaining demonstrations, this workshop shows parents these common parenting traps. Parents will understand the reasons they are falling into the traps and the cost to kids. Parents will learn what they really need to give their children to be successful in life. These include:  time, attention, values, coping skills, acceptance of feelings, limits, responsibility and much more. This workshop offers parents tools and strategies for each of these areas so they can feel confident and prepared for today’s challenges.

One of the greatest challenges of parenting is when children exhibit difficult, demanding or out-of-control behavior. When this happens, parents typically become reactive, and this leads to a negative cycle that leaves the entire family feeling miserable. This workshop will help parents understand, prevent and manage these challenges. We will provide practical, hands-on tips and creative approaches aimed at helping parents navigate some of the toughest challenges of parenting. This workshop will help you:

  • Understand what causes children to misbehave
  • Eliminate power struggles
  • Encourage responsibility
  • Discipline without yelling
  • Take responsibility for your reactive behavior
  • Minimize hassles, tantrums and tears
  • Increase connection and cooperation
  • Effectively set limits and utilize logical consequences 
  • Feel calmer, more confident and enjoy being a parent

One of the biggest challenges of parenting is staying calm when children push our buttons. When parents are at the end of their rope, they are more likely to react in angry, shaming, belittling or punitive ways. Then, parents are left feeling upset or guilty about the way they reacted. When parents react in unhelpful ways, children may feel shame, inadequacy, fear, revenge, or anger. Reactive parenting creates a lose-lose situation in the home. This workshop will help parents understand their reactive nature and provide ideas for how to transform it. Learn to take responsibility for your stress by becoming intentional and conscious so that you can respond rather than react to your child’s difficult and annoying behavior. Parents will:

  • Examine their beliefs about discipline
  • Discover tips to become calm and stay calm when stressed
  • Learn to respond vs. react
  • Learn specific strategies for teaching children to self-calm
  • Set limits effectively
  • Explore discipline strategies that teach rather than punish

Parents of gifted children are well aware of the unique challenges, stresses and joys that come with raising a gifted child. Experts know that a high IQ and test scores alone is no guarantee for the well-being, happiness or success of gifted children. This workshop offers parents practical tools to deepen their relationship with their gifted child and help meet their complex social-emotional needs. In this fun and interactive workshop parents will learn:

  • Strategies for dealing with challenging temperament traits typically found in gifted children such as  emotional intensity and sensitivity
  • How to handle and embrace an introverted child
  • Strategies for handling the challenges of perfectionism
  • Effective limit setting
  • Ways to minimize power struggles, tantrums, and meltdowns
  • Tips for nurturing your gifted child’s passions
  • How to foster emotional intelligence
  • Strategies for intervening when gifted children struggle in social situations
  • How to help their gifted child develop problem-solving skills with peers

Parenting a gifted child has unique joys, challenges and stresses. Experts know that a high IQ and test scores is no guarantee for happiness or success. Navigating sibling and peer relationships can be especially difficult for some gifted children. In this workshop, parents will learn strategies for nurturing their gifted child’s EQ so that they are better equipped to form positive relationships with siblings and peers. This workshop will help you:

  • Avoid common parenting traps in raising gifted children
  • Strengthen the relationships among the siblings in your family
  • Gain insight into your family dynamics that will help you lessen sibling rivalry
  • Teach your gifted child to form positive peer relationships and to understand the qualities of a good friend
  • Effectively support your child through social struggles
  • Teach your child to manage and solve social problems

Girls are more likely to navigate their pre-teen and teen years successfully when inner confidence has been nurtured beginning at a young age. This fun and interactive workshop will provide practical and effective tips and strategies to help parents meet the developmental needs of young girls.  Parents will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges today’s girls face—including the pressures to be smart, popular, athletic, attractive, thin and “perfect.” Learn how to help girls effectively cope with school, peer and societal demands. Strategies will be offered for sensitively responding when girls struggle in any area of their lives. Discover how parenting strategies will either help or hinder the development of true self confidence and strong decision-making skills. Help your daughter develop the skills she needs prior to entering the complexity of the middle school years.

Starting school, preschool or day care is a major milestone for both children and parents. A child’s first separation often creates feelings of excitement, anxiety, fear and stress. Parents often have mixed feelings as well and this ambivalence can add to a child’s hesitancy or reluctance to separate. This workshop will help parents prepare themselves and their child for the separation. This workshop offers guidelines for parents to help the separation experience go smoothly. Parents will leave knowing that what they do will either help or hinder the separation process. In addition, strategies will be shared for helping parents who may be struggling with separating from their child.

Self-esteem is one of the most talked about concepts in parenting and education today. Many parents equate good self-esteem with “happiness” and therefore, spend much time and effort trying to make their children happy. This workshop will define what self-esteem really means while offering specific tips and strategies for nurturing this important quality in your children. Also, the myths of self-esteem will be debunked as they relate to common traps that many parents fall into while trying to produce a “happy” child. Come learn the essential ingredients for fostering true self-esteem.

Do you find yourself reacting to things your child says or does by yelling, punishing or scolding?  And afterward do you feel bad or guilty?  This workshop opens the door for parents to understand and see the gift in these reactive behaviors.  Secrets for transforming reactive parenting into conscious parenting will be unlocked.  Deepen your self-awareness and learn tools and strategies that will help you remain calm when you are at the end of your rope.  In this unique workshop parents will clarify their vision for being the parent they want to be.  They will learn strategies for responding to crying, tantrums and misbehavior in helpful ways including disciplining effectively without yelling or punishing.   Create a strong foundation of love and connection and become the calm, confident, and joyful parent you want to be.

Many parents believe that having a successful career means that their family will suffer; or that in devoting time to being the best parent they can be will cause their career to suffer.  Sometimes there just is not enough time in the day to get everything done! The more stressed we are, the greater likelihood that we will be harsh, impatient, rushed and insensitive to our children. This workshop provides tips for helping parents create balance in their lives; and for keeping their cool even when under pressure.

This workshop offers mothers and daughters a unique opportunity to interact, have fun and learn from each other as they explore some of the challenges girls and women face in today’s world.  During the middle school years, girls and mothers relationships begin to change as girls begin their journey to new independence.  This can be both a rewarding and challenging time for both. Although it is not always obvious, girls need and want a connection with their mothers.  It is not inevitable that mothers and daughters will be at “war” with one another.  Through effort and conscious attention, mothers and daughters can successfully remain connected as daughters move into the teenage years and beyond.  This workshop explores the societal pressure both mothers and daughters experience; girls feel they have to live up to the myth of the “Perfect Girl”, while moms feel they have to be “Super Mom.”   We help reveal why these ideals are actually myths. Practical tips are offered for mothers and daughters for expressing feelings, handling mistakes and being true to themselves while building strong lifelong connections.

“Parents were eager to attend and left with new ideas that made sense. Lauren and Karen’s workshop benefited everyone — the parents, teachers and children at our preschool.”

– Micki Somerman, Director, Northbrook Community Nursery School