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Parent Support Group: You support your family…but who supports you?

We have always been told that being a parent is one of the most rewarding ventures an individual can take. While that is true, I believe that many parents will tell you it is also one of the most difficult and challenging roles to take on. As a parent, I have often sat back at the end of a very difficult day and thought to myself “am I doing it all wrong?”, wondering if others struggle as much as I do.

There are good days and bad days, successes and regrets and somewhere in there, we manage to live life and carry on as expected. It’s easy to fall into the trap of expectations; assuming everyone wants us to be perfect, flawless parents with well-behaved, society pleasing children. For most, this scenario just does not exist. It’s easy to be judgemental and point fingers at parents when you see a child struggling, but that shouldn’t happen. We need to come together as a community to support parents, children, and the family as a whole. Parenting is a challenge, not a competition.

Through various community engagements, it was brought to my attention that many parents within our community are struggling with familial relationships as a result of conflict and or crises experienced with their children. There are many socioeconomic factors such as single-parent homes, poverty, mental health issues and limited access to services and programming that contribute to the stress that parents are experiencing. At Wawa and Area Victim Services, we believe that if we provide a platform for parents to have peer support, education, skills building opportunities and access to resources within our community, the potential for parental burn out and stress will be significantly decreased. This will increase the capacity for healthier familial relationships.

Several research reviews have demonstrated that community-based parent support programs have the capacity to help increase parent’s confidence and competence when managing familial relationships and parent/child conflicts. This is attributed to the numerous supports and resources provided by both the program objectives and the participatory members. They have seen a direct correlation between the increased parental confidence and the enhancement of children’s social and emotional development.

It is with this information that we are excited to present an opportunity for these positive changes to occur. A Parent Support Group will now be available to parents of children ages 10-18, twice a month. It will be parent-driven but supported by a program facilitator that will help guide the group to ensure that the program goals are met and the group is functioning effectively. The first group meeting will be held on October 11that 6 pm – 8 pm, at Wawa and Area Victim Services, 16 Ganley St. If you would like more information about the group please feel free to contact Wawa and Area Victim Service during regular business hours.

“There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one” – Sue Atkins  

 

SOURCE – Erin Bishop, Anti-Human Trafficking Resource Coordinator – Wawa and Area Victim Services

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