Costs and Payment

I will meet with the parents jointly, and communicate by phone and email. Upon accessing the needs of the parents and their children, I may make recommendations to the parents.

The rate for my services is:

Initial first evaluation meeting  £15 per hour

£25 per hour rounded up to the nearest 15 minute increment.

What will I get for my fee?

I will support you to choose what you want for yourself and your children, look at any issues and how to overcome them. Topics include: Parenting alone, rights of children and parents, Practical and emotional development at different ages and stages, Behavior and discipline techniques.

How long does it take?

Since you will need time to practice I suggest that you complete a session per week over a period of 6 weeks. This will allow you to put your learning into action and reflect on how well you are doing.

I support you with raising your children.

we are all strangers but as the weeks progresses and we work together it is so important and obvious that we can learn from each other. If you attend all the meetings you will learn something for yourself, for your family and you can help other parents.

It is really hard to know what is appropriate discipline these days, times have changed since we were bought up and it can get confusing.

Our own parents may have been great, but the environment that we are bringing our children up in has changed and that might mean changing our approach to parenting. Our parents may not have been so great so we need to think about what we can do to make things better for our own family. If you want to do things differently or think that you would like to adapt your parenting to the modern environment then you would definitely benefit from my  parenting program.

The Single Parenting Dilemma!

If your children behave badly do you feel bad because it puts you in the frame of ‘typical single parent?

Do you feel judged? Have you read the stereotypes about children from single parent families doing worse than other families? Are you harder on your children for these reasons?

Do you think of supporting children or discipline as one thing and your ex partner thinks of it as something entirely different? Is the school structure regarding rewards and discipline different to our own? Do you feel that you would get a better response from the school if your children’s father or mother was also involved in school meetings?

Is our own behavior or the behavior of their other parent good? Do you swear, bang around, shout, lose your temper sometimes and then feel angry when your child does it?

How does it feel when you go visiting another family and their children seem well behaved and yours are having a tantrum? Do we feel like a failure as a single parent family?

These and other questions and issues that single parents face on a daily basis are bound to make parenting feel all the more pressurised. So if your question is ‘should I attend a parenting program’ then do yourself a favour and at least find out if there are any in your area. You will find other parents with exactly the same dilemmas.

Before you attend a program it might be worth thinking about a few things in advance. When your child behaves badly are they bored? Tired? Upset about something? Had a sugar overdose? What are the issues here? Perhaps you could keep a behavior diary for a couple of weeks; it will help you get the most out of a program if you are aware of what the triggers regarding bad behavior in your household.

Looking after YOU!

It is really important to have time out for yourself when your child is displaying bad behavior, it can get deeply distressing and feel quite difficult dealing with everything on your own, so put the kids to bed early and luxuriate in the bath with a good book and candles. Find out from your local college if they need guinea pigs for Indian head massage or arrange child care swaps with friends or neighbours. Talk to your friends and family (and if possible your ex) about the difficulties that you are having. Ask for help, even if it is just for a bit of time out.