Hiring a "Parenting Coach"
 

Sign of the times where grandma isn't around to help new parents?
Yet another expensive Baby Boomer indulgence?
A hint that people are getting dumber and dumberer that they need to hire someone to show them common sense?


It seems a little extravagant, but hey, if you need help- you need help. At least the effort to make a difference and to solve the problem is there. Better than doing nothing, I say.

I don't know who these people think they are but in my day we knew how to parent!

Kids today!

It's the parents!

I pay my taxes!

Isn't this just the real world application of Nanny 911 or Super Nanny?

Some people read books, some people make it up as they go along... some people seek one to one help. They do this for everything from taxes and car repair to cooking and fitness. Why not seek a parenting teacher?

I get to teach parents as a result of my profession--it's an accidental thing, but I've had many a client ask me "how do you do it?!" One even suggested I am like Super Nanny.

What sets a childcare professional and a parent apart is often quite simply that the parent is afraid to be the bad guy. That's all. There is an emotional attachment they have to their child, and they are afraid of huring their child's feelings. Most behavior problems stem from parents trying to appease their child instead of disciplining the child. When I step in and discipline the child--because there's no emotional attachment, and I am not afraid to be the bad guy--the child straightens up. In 75% of cases, it really is that easy. And when I say discipline, I mean that what I say is law. The child must adhere to the rules I have set or else they face consequences, and I follow through with the consequences, be they loss of television privileges, loss of me as a playmate for a while, a time out in their room, or going to bed early. If a child gives me trouble at bedtime, they know that the consequence is that I will put them to bed without a story or without any extras--they will be put to bed and that will be that. Yes, some cry and whine and try to manipulate me, but I don't give in. And that is where parents go wrong.

If parents want to better their parenting skills by hiring a professional, I say more power to them. Perhaps this could be a future career for me.

I don't see anything wrong with finding and taking the help if available. "Back in the day", parenting coaches weren't heard of, but there also wasn't nearly as much pressure to be the "perfect parent". Nowadays everything you do as a parent has the potential to be critisized and put down. There's such specific recommendations now for parents, from how to speak to them to what to feed them, who wouldn't feel like they need the help?

Isn't this all another way of saying therapist? Teach a man to fish...

Why the hell not?

I'd rather see a set of parents acknowledging that they need help and setting out to find it, than to be negligent or make very poor decisions.

Why aren't there more people like you in child care around here? I'd send kids to you in a heartbeat.

You bring up emotional attachment - I've seen this one first-hand. My sister is a childcare professional. She has worked in childcare for 15+ years, and is quite good with other people's children. But when it comes to her own children... honestly, they walk all over her.

Precisely and I couldn't agree more. I just think it's funny to call it a parent coach. Renaming something to make it sound cool.

There should be a test you have to pass to be a parent!