Becoming an Emotional Coach for Your Kids

We have talked a lot about beech acres in the past and we went to another great workshop on How to Become An Emotional Coach for Your Kids. Although I feel like I go from one thing to the next and there is never enough time in the day (you feel me right?!), I have made a commitment to myself and my family to attend these monthly workshops. Even though I drag myself in the car to go because you know I can always find something else to do, I am SOOOO happy when I get there and learn more tools to keep in my parenting toolbox. I must say that I would not do a lot of the things I do as a parent if it wasn’t for Beech Acres.

I know some of you probably think, come on, why do we need workshops on how to be a good parent? It comes naturally. Well, maybe for some, and although parts of being a mom has come very natural to me, there are other parts that I need help with! I think all of us can find parenting tools outside of ourselves that help with our kids and our families.

How to Become an Emotional Coach for your Kids was a great 1 hour workshop teaching parents how to be an emotional coach and through empathy and teaching, helps children to recognize and manage emotions. I always take home many gems after a beech acres workshop, but one of my favorite things I learned from this class is that WHEN YOUR CHILD MISBEHAVES THEY ARE DOING IT BECAUSE OF FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT SOMETHING. Our job is to not just discipline the misbehavior (which still needs to be addressed), but consider what thoughts and feelings they may be having that has caused them to misbehave and/or act out. They went into much more detail on how to do this over the hour workshop, but I encourage you to think about this the next time your child is acting out. Rather than just yelling and disciplining them for hitting their brother, consider what they may have been feeling to cause them to react this way. IF we start doing this with our kids, then we can start to teach them the emotion they are experiencing and give them constructive ways to release those emotions to avoid future problem behaviors.

I really do encourage you (if local to cincy) to check out one of their workshops. If it just isn’t something you can’t commit to because of your schedule you can check them out online at their Parenting Resource Center which has a ton of wonderful information. Another great parenting resource I recently found through a free online webinar is Positive Parenting Solutions. They have a lot of similar teachings as Beech Acres and you can take the parenting classes online at your own leisure. I just purchased the package of her classes myself because I was so intrigued by her free webinar. I thought if any of you are interested and decide to get it too we could take the course “together” (maybe take a session every two weeks and then have an online discussion on it) OR I was thinking of hosting one of the free webinar sessions so let me know your thoughts!

I would LOVE to hear any great parenting resources (books, online etc.) that you have found helpful in raising your kids! You can also check out our Parenting Resources section with some more of our favorite things :) Happy Parenting!!