Parenting is hard. It means helping an incredibly cute yet utterly selfish tiny human become a grown person who develops meaningful relationships and contributes to society. That sounds very hard.
As parents, we receive a lot of potentially overwhelming and contradictory advice from our parents, friends, church, and social media. What do we do? How can we navigate the onslaught of information and find the best path for us, our families, and our children?
An open and relational parenting workshop can help as you develop your parenting approach. During the workshop, we will examine the most helpful parenting styles, based on current psychological research, and discuss ways our parenting can better align with those styles.
Many of us think of God as a parent figure. As we learn more about healthy parenting styles, we sometimes find our image of God doesn't resemble a healthy parent. We will also discuss theological ideas that help us see God as a healthy parent and emulate those aspects of God in our parenting. We will discuss big topics like love, choice, cooperation, relationship, and responsibility in a way that honors and unifies healthy parenting and theology.
Participation in a parenting workshop does not require a belief in or a particular view of God. Open and relational parenting does not see God through a specific religious worldview. It sees God as a consistent, moment-by-moment influence on all people and things. It doesn't want to change your faith tradition or spiritual community. It hopes to offer some ideas about God that inspire us to be the best parents we can be.
Each workshop accommodates up to eight participants and lasts three hours. In the first hour, we'll talk about parenting styles and research. We'll spend about an hour discussing theology and its connection to parenting. The last hour is for answering your questions and helping with any parenting challenges you may have. During this introduction time, there is no charge for participation. However, I eagerly anticipate your feedback.