Parents often find themselves following the same patterns when it comes to disciplining their children. They yell or threaten or count to three, and the child keeps doing the same bad behaviors. Parenting expert Meredith Walt has introduced a comprehensive program that gives parents positive, real-world tools to break the cycle of discipline and find practical solutions to the most common parenting problems.
From sleep training to behavior modification, Bag of Tricks Parenting strives to end the whining, the tantrums and the testing of authority that are so common in a parent’s life. Suite101 spoke with Walt, the creator of the Bag of Tricks Parenting program.
What is “Bag of Tricks” parenting? What is the philosophy behind the program?
Bag of Tricks Parenting is a pro-parent, pro-child, “stop telling me to be consistent” approach to rebalancing the power within a family. The crux of my approach is to support families with tangible tools to address common discipline woes, realign priorities to preserve the marriage, and instill necessary tools in children which will carry them into a successful adulthood.
How is your program different from the many others on the market?
When frustrated parents reach out for help, they are sold on the end result – happy healthy children. Specific behavior ruts are outlined with a generalized approach “sold” as a solution; however, if the situation changes slightly, parents are thrown off kilter in how to respond. Bag of Tricks Parenting does not stop at outlining point A and point B. It provides a comprehensive “wraparound” approach to give parents the how.
What products and services do you offer?
Bag of Tricks Parenting is part service-oriented and part product-oriented. I team up with businesses that have a clientele of parents, mom support groups and preschools to provide seminars that range in specific topics as well as private in-home family sessions to focus on individual needs.
Who is your target audience?
My target audience includes any parent or family member that wants to enjoy a more peaceful environment. With that being said, parents of younger children tend to have a higher motivation to change what they are contributing to a particular situation. At the core of my philosophy is the distinction between details and issues. Details change and morph as a child grows; however, the issues within a family system remain the same, and I make the visual to a parent as to what we are working on with a young child and how it translates to a middle school, or high school child.
What aspects of parenting do you cover?
I focus on every aspect of parenting, which begins by redefining the parents’ job description: aligning the family so that the parents are above the “power line,” preserving the marriage, raising competent children that are resilient and self sufficient and moving away from what I refer to as the “Princess Phenomenon” era. I focus on empowering parents to understand what they need to do and filling up their bag of tricks to handle situations in any environment.
If a parent is struggling with her child’s behavior issues, where should she start?
Any frustrated parent should start by understanding her job requirement. Anxiety usually goes down within the first five minutes of my seminar (which is available as a DVD) and reactive parenting makes a visual shift to proactive parenting. Parents learn quickly that there are not “a million” things that need to be different, just two or three.
Walt has a master’s degree in education from Boston University and has done family-centered work with the court system, foster care, Department of Juvenile Justice and Department of Children and Families. She has two boys ages five and two. For more information, visit BagofTricksParenting.com.
Kari Lomanno - Kari Lomanno is a high school English teacher and mother of two children ages 9 and 7. She lives in Chesapeake, Virginia with her husband ...
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