We know that life as a parent can be like a roller-coaster, both rewarding and challenging, with ups and downs and twists and turns. It is an exciting journey and full of joy, but it can also be a scary and challenging one.
Our parenting courses are here to support you and help you build a strong and secure relationship with your child, whatever their age.
Our aim is to empower parents to become the best version of themselves, so they can parent with confidence and raise children that will thrive and will also become their best version.
The sessions include group discussions and practical tasks to help you build on your strengths and will give you time and space to think about any changes you want to make. A helpful, easy-to-read handbook is included with each course.
Our courses are run in community venues and are usually made up of six 2-hour sessions, each led by trained and experienced facilitators, trained by Care for the Family UK.
What courses do we deliver?
Early Years – Parents of children
0 – 5 years old
Bringing together mums and dads to look at building healthy relationships with their babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers and develop learning through fun and play.
How does it work?
Sharing ideas with other parents and carers is a key element. Discussions are based around real-life scenarios. Each session includes space to plan any changes you want to make in your parenting and, from week two, an opportunity to discuss how that’s working.
What’s in the course?
The course begins by looking at what happens when we become a parent – the surprises, disappointments, and joys.
We consider how to develop children’s emotional security and build the bond between parent and child through recognising their feelings, responding appropriately, listening well, and being positive in what we say.
Play is important for a child’s development, and we look at ways in which we can support and encourage their growth and learning. We also consider different parenting styles, what our own parenting style is, and how that affects our interactions with our child.
A vital topic is boundaries and why they matter. We look at how routines and giving limited choices help reduce battles. There’s a toolkit of strategies for handling difficult behaviour and we see how we can choose one that is right for our child.
As adults we have needs too, and so we think about how to meet those needs and how we handle conflict within the family.
The final session focuses on ‘belonging’ – the importance to children of feeling part of their family – and we see how we can develop this through shared activities and creating family traditions.
Session Titles:
Session 1 – Expectations and realities of parenting
Session 2 – Children’s needs
Session 3 – Play and listening
Session 4 – Parenting styles
Session 5 – Discipline and safety
Session 6 – The wider family
Primary Years – Parents of children
5– 11 years old
Help guide your children through the next stage of childhood and build stronger family relationships as they journey through the rollercoaster of life
Focusing on children from 5 to 11 years, The Primary Years helps parents look at how to support their child as they start to find out how the world works, learn how to manage their feelings, find out what they’re good at and experience the consequences of keeping or breaking the rules.
How does it work?
Sharing ideas with other parents and carers is an important part of the course, and discussions are started from real life situations. Each session includes space to plan any changes you want to make in your parenting and, from week two, you will have an opportunity to discuss how you’re getting on with trying these at home.
What’s in the course?
The primary years are an exciting time when children are developing friendships and discovering more about who they are and what they can do. The course helps parents to support their child’s emotional wellbeing through understanding their temperament, meeting their needs, and communicating well.
We explore how our parenting approach influences family relationships and consider a toolkit of behaviour strategies to allow parents to decide what best suits their family situation. We discuss helping children make good choices and understand friendships both in the real and online worlds. Finally, we look at how to deal well with conflict and the importance of enjoying family time together.
Session titles:
Session 1 – What being a parent is really like
Session 2 – Children’s needs
Session 3 – Feelings and listening
Session 4 – Boundaries and parenting styles
Session 5 – Keeping safe
Session 6 – Building strong families
Teenage Years – Parents of Teenagers
Help and advice on parenting in teenage years to build strong relationships to enjoy family life.
Bringing you hope as you chart your way through the challenges of the teenage years and the changes in the parent-child relationship. The six sessions are designed to help you stay connected with your teenager through understanding their world and developing good communication skills.
“By week three of the course our relationship had really improved, and my daughter commented on how much better things were in the home because I didn’t shout so much!” Parent
How does it work?
Sharing ideas with other parents and carers is an important part of the course, there is engaging video content, and discussions are started from real life situations. Each session includes space to plan any changes you want to make in your parenting and, from week two, you will have opportunity to discuss how you’re getting on with trying these at home.
What’s in the course?
The first three sessions look at laying good foundations in relationships with your teenagers: understanding the pressures they face, connecting with them, meeting their emotional needs, and improving how you communicate with them.
Then we come to some of the harder topics: how parenting style effects your teenager, negotiation, setting boundaries and dealing with some of the big issues like drugs, sex and the internet.
Finally, we look at building good family memories.
Session titles:
Session 1 – Understanding teenagers
Session 2 – Emotional resilience
Session 3 – Communication
Session 4 – Parenting styles and boundaries
Session 5 – Big issues
Session 6 – Big issues, strong families
Children with Additional needs
Parents of children with additional needs often feel isolated and frustrated that ‘standard parenting advice’ sometimes doesn’t work.
The course provides an opportunity for you to support and encourage each other, helping you share feelings and experiences, and come up with solutions to problems on the basis of what works – not what’s meant to work!
The seven sessions are written by parents and professionals with input from many different families with experience of children with additional needs. They aim to help support you in meeting your child’s needs, focussing on children aged between 3 to 11 years with a disability or additional needs, particularly those who have learning, developmental and behavioural issues.
How does it work?
Sharing ideas with other parents and carers is a key element. Discussions are based around real-life scenarios. Each session includes space to plan any changes you want to make in your parenting and from week two, an opportunity to discuss how that’s working.
What’s in the course?
We start by looking at what life is really like living with your child who has additional needs, helping them reach their potential and how to keep going.
We consider how to boost self-esteem through play and learning, respond with good listening, and how our parenting style affects our children’s responses.
Next, we explore how you can talk to your child about their condition, other people’s reactions to your child and recognising and coping with feelings.
Why do our children act the way they do? We look at the many reasons behind behaviour, the vital subject of setting boundaries, why children need them and why they can be hard to set. Following on from this is the value of routines, praise, and consistency and exploring a toolkit of discipline strategies.
Home and school are often big issues, and we look at how the school might support your child’s learning, how you can play a part in this and where to look for further support. Finally, there’s a chance to recognise the impact on the wider family and to review what the course has meant to you.
Session titles:
Session 1 – Parenting children with additional needs
Session 2 – Self-esteem
Session 3 – Coping with feelings
Session 4 – Understanding behaviour
Session 5 – Managing behaviour
Session 6 – Home and school
Session 7 – The wider family
The Dads Course
If you are a dad, this course is for you!
Five workshops focussing on the importance of dads and helping you to build an even better relationship with your children.
“This course has been an excellent eye-opener in terms of understanding my role as a father and also the needs of my children.” Parent
How does it work?
Whether you’re parenting as a couple, a single parent or away dad, this course aims to help you share your feelings and experiences and come up with solutions to your problems based on what works for you.
What’s in the course?
You’ll look at how you can improve your understanding of how to meet your child’s needs, including learning and development. You’ll explore other key aspects including building self-esteem and positive communication, setting, and maintaining boundaries, and managing your child’s behaviour.
There’s also time to think about how your role might change as your child grows and ways to build a healthy relationship with the wider family.
Session titles:
Session 1 – What are dads for?
Session 2 – Dad – the manager
Session 3 – Dad – the coach
Session 4 – Dad – the trainer
Session 5 – Dad – the team player
Domestic Abuse Recovering Together (DART)
DART is a 10-week programme that helps mothers and children (aged 7-14) strengthen their relationship following domestic abuse.
Often, domestic abuse is not discussed at home, and this can have a huge impact on the mother and child relationship.
Over the 10-week group work programme mothers and children are given the opportunity to explore issues within a safe and friendly environment.
During the programme we will help mothers and children to understand what domestic abuse is, learn how to talk about domestic abuse, express their feelings in healthy ways, know they are not to blame, identify protection strategies and build their confidence and self-esteem.
The courses aim to provide common sense, jargon free information & ideas to help engage with your children and boost your relationship. The benefits of sharing ideas and experiences with other parents can last a lifetime.
