Free parenting advice...that I wanted!

Thanks to Tiffany at Bloggy Moms and Amy at Positive Parenting Solutions I was able to attend a free parenting seminar entitled "Get Kids to Listen without Reminding and Yelling" on Thursday evening.

I had a really rough day on Thursday and when I sat down on the couch after putting Pierce to bed I really wanted to just lie on the couch and stare at the television until it was time for me to go to bed. When I received the reminder email about 15 minutes before the presentation started I groaned. I did not want to attend. I did not want to have to listen actively and take notes. I almost didn't attend, but I talked myself into it by telling myself that I could always leave if I wanted to, but that I should go and at least give it a try.

I am so glad I attended. SO glad! While the topic was geared to older children rather than Pierce who is just 8 months, I felt like I learned some valuable tools to deal with misbehaviour when we get there. Amy spoke about the importance of belonging and significance in children's lives and how punishment has to do with blame, shame and pain (either physical or emotional). She explained why consequences are better than punishment. I even thought to myself, "Wow, I wish my parents had known this when I was growing up!"

Positive Parenting offers a comprehensive parenting course here and I am seriously considering taking it. The only thing that's holding me back is convincing my husband to allow me to spend the money. Maybe I'll wait until Pierce is a little older, but part of me wants to have these techniques in my back pocket so that when the time comes I'm fully prepared.

Anyways, I would definitely recommend the course, even though I haven't taken all of it myself. Amy does host some free webinars, so you can check those out and register for them here and you can even enroll to get email notifications of new free webinars coming up if you scroll to the bottom of that page.