Purpose

Why Do This Blog?

I co founded Xylem Family Resource in 2004 out of a desire to help parents learn how to be more effective parents in a way that actually makes their parenting experience more enjoyable (and easier) while at the same time teaches their kids to be problem solvers, take ownership of their own behavior, and be loving and caring individuals…All this while creating strong healthy relationships between parent and child that will last a lifetime.

Probably the question I get asked most is, “Do you really do all this with your own kids?” And the second question I get most asked is “How do you do this with your own kids?”

I know that many people will say I’m breaking the rules by opening up my personal life in this way since I’m a parenting educator sharing my personal parenting stories. And apparently, that’s a no-no. But I’m choosing to do this to show that even I have to be very intentional about my interactions with my kids. That sometimes it’s really inconvenient. That I don’t have this anomaly family with picture-perfect children who do whatever I say without any effort on my part. In fact, believe it or not, my kids are very strong-willed and I have experienced many of the challenges that most of the parents I work with have experienced.

I know the feeling of being so frustrated I want to hit my kids. I have had many times when my husband has had to jump in and help me get refocused when I’ve gotten stuck in a power struggle. I have had to apologize to my children for making parenting mistakes.

But in the end, I would like to say that I really do try to practice what I preach…or in this case, parent what I preach. I think that if there is any major advantage that I have in parenting is that I have to talk about good parenting so much with others throughout the week that I can’t HELP but be a better parent with my own kids.

My hope is that I can show that I am a real mom with real kids doing real parenting on a day to day basis. And if I can do it (most of the time) so can you.