Generations ago our mothers had an occasional Tupperware Party or the Pot Luck Dinner over a card game to catch up on current events, their children’s successes and the latest parenting challenges. In recent years, mom’s have instead gathered for cooking, jewelry, home decor or makeup parties and book clubs to stay connected to current trends, sibling rivalry issues, homework challenges and partake in an insight exchange on parenting.
In light of these “gatherings” Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth (UBHCHY) Coalition has reinvented these ideas to inspire an innovative program that addresses a range of public health, social and emotional wellness concerns regarding our youth called ‘Parent Chats.’ UBHCHY is partnering with local parent organizations and school district administrators to launch the first-ever, area-wide, Parent Chats initiative.
Parent Chats will be hosted in parents’ homes, for sharing concerns, ideas and strategies for staying connected to our kids, their activities, their concerns, needs, challenges and their schools. In our increasingly global and often disconnected society, it’s becoming more and more challenging to keep healthy lines of communication going and to foster the presence of healthy assets in our children’s lives.
“The transition from elementary to middle school is an especially precarious time,” says Judi Pason, UBHCHY Coalition’s Parent Educator. “Our kids are approaching the developmental phase when they begin to strive for greater independence and establish identity apart from their role in the family. School-to-home communication practices also change. Parents, rightfully so, are concerned they’ll lose touch with their children’s daily school and social worlds.”
The informal parent networks that have formed during the earlier childhood and elementary school years also may begin to unravel a bit as extracurricular activities, athletics and other commitments shift our established patterns and circles of support.
Coalition members will co-host/facilitate during the opening meeting of ‘Parent Chats’ to introduce the broad goals of building on healthy assets and resiliency factors in our children’s lives, as well as providing a framework for the parent networking. For more information, contact Judi Pason at judi.pason@gmail.com