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Parents Toolshop Newsletter - April 2009
Child Abuse Prevention Month, Celebrating Foster and Adoptive Families
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In this April newsletter you'll find:
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Child abuse prevention is a topic very close to my heart, because for all but the first 4 years of my life, I have been involved one way or another with the issue of child abuse. So I ask you for a little more time than usual to share my monthly newsletter thoughts.
Anyone who has read my introduction and personal stories in The Parent's Toolshop book, knows that my parents were parent educators and fantastic, highly-effective parents. The reason they took their first class, however, was due to my older brother's problems, which he often took out on me, his favorite target. I was never physically or sexually abused, but was certainly verbally abused and emotionally tormented pretty much my entire childhood. (My book tells the whole story, including what my parents did about it, etc.)
During college, I researched sibling abuse (which almost no one addresses) and my very first speech was a personal testimonial about the effects of child abuse, to several hundred professors at a conference. After college, I worked as a protective service caseworker for several years in the sexual abuse unit. When I had children of my own, I quit my job to work with parents before there were serious problems. I taught classes to motivated, caring parents, like you and me, in my community. Several years later, I resumed teaching parenting classes for "high-risk" parents and for the past 15 years I have trained protective service caseworkers and foster parents statewide, and the parents who are in the county protective service system for whom I used to work.
I have a deep sense of compassion for the challenges parents face and how they can end up in the protective service system without any real conscious, malicious intention. Most want to be good parents but were abused themselves, so they don't have the awareness or skills to do anything else. I also have the utmost respect for the foster parents and caseworkers who work so hard to serve these parents and help them be the best parents they can be.
I wholeheartedly believe that almost every societal ill could be greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated, if every parent would learn effective parenting skills. Think about it...most societal problems have poor parenting as at least one contributing factor: gangs ...drugs and alcohol ... crime & violence ... poor school performance & drop-outs ... domestic violence ... school violence ... childhood obesity ... terrorism ... and more!
So what can you do? Several things:
- Be supportive to every parent you know. Share helpful resources with them when you see them struggling with a problem, including Parents Toolshop's, of course.
- Support organizations that advocate for a national focus on promoting effective parenting programs, such as the National Effective Parenting Initiative (NEPI) at http://www.effectiveparentingusa.org/.
- Most importantly, love and effectively care for your own children. We each are programming our own children's thoughts, beliefs, values, feelings, and behavior with our words and actions. It is that programming they will most likely follow when they are parents. So, in a way, everything we say and do to our own children, we are indirectly saying and doing to our grandchildren. Makes you think, huh?
If we can do our part to be effective parents, support other parents in being the very best parent they have the capacity to be, and support organizations that can teach parents effective skills, we could affect a serious reduction or even elimination of child abuse worldwide in just a matter of one or two decades! And the trickle-down effect of that would impact almost all other societal ills. Wow...would that be like...Peace on Earth? I think so.
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| Sign up for Spring Classes! |
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T.I.P.S. (Tools For Improving Parenting Success) - The premier Parents Toolshop program! Offered locally in the Dayton area for over 25 years, this class is the only parenting program anywhere that teaches my unique step-by-step plan for preventing or effectively responding to any challenge involving children ages 1-18.
Click here for more information and to register.
The Inner Secrets To a Stress-Free Life - Exclusive, Once-A-Year Class!
Transform your life from stress-full to stress-free, by learning the no-longer secret strategies for permanently ending stress, removing stress-induced conditions and creating a life of good health, wealth, and relationships.
Click here for more information and to register.
T.I.P.S. Teleclass - Get the same principles taught in my local T.I.P.S. Parenting class... from anywhere in the world! We will be taking the researched and proven-effective parenting techniques covered in my book, The Parents Toolshop®, and teaching them in a fun, lively, and supportive environment. The class will include myself and many other parents from all across the country!
Click here for more information and to register
We will send out an additional reminder about the classes available in your area on Thursday of this week. In the meantime, check your calendar because classes are starting up fast!
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| Parents Tool Talk Radio |
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Foster and adoptive families are integral to child abuse prevention, so this month on Parents Tool Talk, we will discuss the topic of "Celebrating Foster and Adoptive Families."
Our special guest expert is Atasha Kelley-Harris. Ms. Kelley-Harris is a Child and Family Services Consultant who currently resides in the Houston
Metropolitan area. She has worked in a variety of capacities for numerous agencies throughout Texas and
Arizona. She is an Associate Member of the National Council on Family Relations, as well as a Certified
Family Life Educator. Throughout her 15-year career, Atasha has done a great deal of work on behalf of
children and families.
Air Date and Time: Friday, April 10th, 12pm Eastern.
Attention Foster Parents! You can get 1 hour of long-distance CEUs by checking in with us at the beginning and end of this month's radio show. For instructions on how to do this, sign up for the Parents Tool Talk Mailing List! As a member of this list, you'll also receive exclusive pre- and post-show resources for all radio shows and teleseminars! Sign up at:
www.ParentsToolshop.com/tele
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Featured Resource: Parents Toolshop Teleseminar
"The Controversy About Corporal Punishment" |
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"The Controversy About Corporal Punishment," featuring guest expert, Dr. Kerby Alvy of the National Effective Parenting Initiative (NEPI). In this call we discussed what research says about the effectiveness of corporal punishment and what approach parents educators should take in addressing corporal punishment. We also discussed effective discipline tools parents can use instead of corporal punishment, how parents and parent educators can support effective parenting, and more!.
This teleseminar also includes a valuable Resource Packet with articles by Jody and her guest, a Powerpoint presentation, excerpts from The Parents Toolshop book, and links.
To listen to an audio sample and to order, click below:
"Parents Toolshop Telseminar: The Controversy About Corporal Punishment"
You may also want to check out the Parents Toolshop Teleseminar entitled:
"Take The Bite Out Of Discipline"
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| Featured Articles |
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I have two articles this month on the subject of child abuse prevention.
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| Fathers: Help Further Research into Parenting Styles |
| To all fathers reading this newsletter:
Dr. David Bredehoft and Michael Walcheski are working on a study involving Fathers, Parenting Styles and Overindulgence. They would welcome your help by completing a survey found at the link below.
http://www.overindulgence.info/ParticipateInResearch.htm
They are especially looking for fathers to participate in this study. Thank you for your help!
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In Closing,
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I hope you have a chance this month to check out our special resources for child abuse prevention. I also hope you join us for our live radio show celebrating foster and adoptive families, because these families are integral to preventing child abuse. If you can think of someone for whom these resources would be valuable, please pass along this newsletter!
Thank you for your continued support of Parents Toolshop, as we strive to reach out to parents and families of all kinds with the effective parenting tools they need to build strong and healthy families.
Yours in service to families,
Jody
P.N. (Privacy Notice)- I will always keep my promise to never share or sell your contact information with anyone, and to only contact you if you have opted into my mailing list.
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