I believe that parenting can be a truly radical act. The way in which we raise our children can have a profound positive impact on our communities, our societies, and our world. At its heart, peaceful parenting is a social justice issue. As adults, we have more power than our children. How we choose to use our power matters. If we want a just society, we must move from traditional models of parental control and coercion towards new models of connection, collaboration and freedom.
It’s not just about social change though; peaceful parenting is better for our children. Research has shown time and again that children who are free from praise, punishments and rewards have greater motivation, embrace more challenges, and enjoy the lasting positive effects of a growth mindset. That the less we try and control our children’s behaviour, the less they act in ways which are seen as problematic. That when we prioritise connection and collaboration, the whole family flourishes.
But the truth is, no matter how many books you read, or courses you take, or coaching you sign up to, I don’t believe that you can just “become” a peaceful parent. It is an active journey, something that needs to be worked on day after day, month after month, year after year, as our parenting adapts and grows alongside our children. It’s about fundamentally changing our mindset as parents, challenging the way we were raised and the traditional models of parentings which surround us and working on ourselves to be able to show up in the way our children deserve, as we model being authentic and empathetic humans.
The Peaceful Home
I have been thinking about running a peaceful parenting course for some time – I love the course format (I do run three courses after all!) and I think it works really well for more discrete topics such as crafting strong family rhythms or planning calm and meaningful celebrations.
But whenever I came to map out the course content for a peaceful parenting course, something just wasn’t clicking for me. There was simply too much to fit into a short course – there was too much content to fit into even a longer course. The more books I read and the more I wrote, the more I realised that trying to cram everything into a one-off course just wouldn’t work. I wanted the parents I worked with to have time, space and ongoing support to digest this content, and I didn’t want to start them on a journey only to have to artificially end it a few weeks later just as they were getting started.
That is why I have created The Peaceful Home, a membership group for peaceful parents, wherever they are on their journey.
Each month members will have access to:
- A video workshop on a different topic related to peaceful parenting, gentle discipline, and mindset and inner work for parents
- A PDF workbook to accompany each topic filled with information, practical ideas, questions for you to work through alone or with a partner, and journalling and reflection prompts
- A curated ‘reading’ list of blogs, books, research, articles and podcast episodes
- A live Q&A video
- Weekly guided group discussions
- Bonus interviews and content
- A whole lot of support and guidance from me and other like-minded parents to work through any bumps that come up in your journey
The first month will focus on communication: how to grow connection through calm communication with your children, spotting negative patterns of communication, how to successfully communicate your needs to others, and advocating for your children and communicating your parenting preferences.
Future topics include playful parenting, building resilience and emotional awareness, creating a safe space for our children’s emotions, inner work and mindset for parents, living our values and parenting for peace, parenting without rewards, punishments, and praise, raising wholehearted children, supporting your children’s social interaction (with siblings, other children and adults), and so much more.
The group is designed to complement the rest of my courses, so the content will always be fresh and new without repeating what we’ve covered in other spaces.
You can find out more about The Peaceful Home and join here (booking is now open but for a few days only, so don’t leave it too long).
I am so looking forward to walking this journey alongside you.
