To Believe in Your Children Believe in Yourself

I've been conducting parenting classes for the past 8 years.  Right now I have a class of about 25 parents, who all have teenagers who have gotten in serious trouble.  In the classes, we talk about how to talk so they listen, how to use consequences to stop being the enemy, how to motivate your kids to do their best, etc., etc.  And all that is good, but a couple of years ago, I started noticing that parents had lost hope.  They talked like it was hopeless, like their kids would never change.  I started asking parents if they really believed that.  And how they would feel if someone believed that about them. 

The new topic was Believe in Kids, but.....then I realized we had to go back one step further and help the parents believe in themselves.   Here are the affirmations I share with parents.  Start telling your brain you are an amazing parent; your brain will believe it.  Oh, don't forget to tell your kids they are amazing...they'll believe it too and more importantly, will start acting like it.

Affirmations for Parents



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Movies To Watch: Underwater Dreams and Spare Parts

One of our jobs as parents is to believe in our kids.  In my classes, I cover the typical things like Parenting Styles, Communication, Conflict Resolution, etc.  But what I have found is that parents need to reflect on what they believe about their kids.  If they have gotten in trouble with the law, or if their grades are not great, you may be questioning your kids' capabilities and even their intelligence.  Do not fall in that trap.  I repeat do not fall in the trap.  You know how amazing your kids are.  Do not judge them according to their current circumstance.  These two movies which are about the same story, except that one is the documentary and the other is the movie, are about inspiring kids to believe in themselves.  Just remember, they can't do that if you don't believe in them.


Underwater Dreams

It's the stuff of movies - four undocumented Mexican-American high school students enter a NASA-sponsored robotics contest and beat MIT and other prestigious universities. Yet the unlikely victory did not lead to a successful or lucrative future in the tech and science world for these students, mainly because they were constrained by their immigration status. Their fascinating story is the subject of a new documentary, “Underwater Dreams,” airing Sunday on MSNBC and Telemundo, as well as an upcoming Hollywood film.  Source:  article in Wire Magazine

Spare Parts
Four Hispanic high school students form a robotics club. With no experience, 800 bucks, used car parts and a dream, this rag tag team goes up against the country's reigning robotics champion, MIT.



Parenting classes available in Hayward, San Leandro and Oakland

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