I am a single mother of four with children from five to fourteen years old. Single parenting is a tough job.  In the last year and a half I have especially struggled parenting my oldest son who was recently diagnosed with a mental illness. Naturally, this has affected our whole family dynamic and has been incredibly challenging and at some times, devastating.

Last fall I saw the class Parenting with Love and Logic advertised. I signed up and completed the class and this winter I took Circle of Security. Words cannot describe how grateful I am that I stumbled upon this resource in my community when I did. I don’t even know where to begin. People ask me what these classes have done for me and the three things I always mention are: I don’t argue with a five-year-old anymore, it never worked anyway; I don’t do any of it perfectly but even doing a little bit goes a long way; It’s all about allowing your kids to experience the natural consequences of their actions (good and bad) and remaining a loving, empathetic and supportive parent through it all. There is so much more I could say.

These classes provided the building blocks on which I have worked to create the ‘new-normal’ in our family. I am so grateful to have had the support of these classes during this time. I have recommended these classes to anybody and everybody I can tell about them. The lessons I learned have been invaluable. My only regret is that I did not take them ten years ago.

A wonderful feature of these classes is that they integrate our community and allow parents to learn from each other. There were single moms, affluent families and even a couple who opened up about losing custody of their children because of their drug abuse. It was incredible. These classes benefit our community in so many ways and I would encourage every parent to take part.