To state the obvious, parenting can be exhausting.

The fatigue can be completely overwhelming when a child is dealing with ongoing behavioral issues. As parents, we can often get to a point emotionally where we feel  like we’ve run out of tools to fix the situation.

That’s where a Parent Coach comes in. We add a few more tools to your toolbox and help you come up with creative solutions to the problems you’ve been dealing with for what seems like forever.

An effective Parent Coach will observe the inner workings of your family and find a way to help you adjust their behaviors to be more effective with your children. This can come in the form of teaching daily-life activities, like getting dressed, potty training, age-appropriate chores, and sleeping issues. (How much of that sounds familiar?)

At Optimal Beginnings, we offer Parent Coaching in a couple different formats. There’s personalized training, where a Board Certified Behavior Analyst meets with you individually, customizing plans for how to better manage your child’s troubling behaviors.

We also offer Group Parent Coaching, where we get several parents together and focus on one particular topic that parents might be dealing with (tantrums, bedtime, or bottle weaning, for example). Through group training, we take a discussion-based approach to intervention in these behaviors.

Parent Coaching can truly be a bridge to better behavior (and a happier home).

Take this story from one of our former clients for example:

“My son had learned how to ask for things in full sentences in therapy, but wasn’t doing it outside of his session. The team at Optimal Beginnings encouraged me not to anticipate his needs or reinforce him asking with single words, but to wait until he asked for something with his full sentence before giving him what he wanted. One day I did it without meaning to! My son came up to me and demanded my phone. ‘Phone!’ he said. I happened to be using my phone at that moment so I said, ‘No, honey, I’m using my phone now.’

‘Black phone!’ he tried, more insistently.

‘Mommy is using her phone right now; you can use it when I’m finished.’

He paused. He thought. He dug deep. ‘May I have your black phone, please?’

I almost fell out of my chair. I was so surprised. I handed him the phone! At that moment, what the team had been telling me in parent coaching clicked, and I saw how I could support the work that was happening in therapy sessions and help my son generalize those skills into his whole life.”

Another time, we used Parent Coaching to help a mother kick her son’s bottle habit. The family got an individualized plan, as well as remote support, to get their son off his bottle.

One of the biggest myths when it comes to Parent Coaching is the belief that you only need one if you “cannot” parent. But nothing could be further from the truth, and parenting is not one-size-fits-all. Some people are more equipped to manage certain behaviors, while others may struggle.

Like we said before, parenting can be exhausting, challenging, and difficult.

Everyone can use a little help every now and then.

An effective and experienced Parent Coach will put their own bias aside and analyze the family unit, so they can help provide support within that family’s core values, and not impose their own thoughts and ideals.

If you’re interested in learning more about Optimal Beginnings’ Parent Coaching services, give us a call at 301-718-1716 (Maryland) or 703-429-1853 (Virginia). We’ll be offering five summer workshops, so reserve your spot soon!