It takes a village, right? But when you’re up in the middle of the night, or your child is dawdling as you’re trying to get out the door to school, or you’re mortified as your child tantrums on the floor of a shop, parenting can feel pretty isolating. In the moment, we have to make snap decisions that either get us out of a tight spot or end up escalating things into a worse place and we have to backtrack later putting things right. Our choices in these moments are on our own shoulders, we take the responsibility for and consequences of the parenting choices we make, and worse, so do our kids.
The weight of this responsibility, the endless worrying whether we’ve made the best decision and the fear of what the results might be if we decide one thing or another all feel like heavy burdens. It is this mental load that we often need to share with others, verbalising our thoughts in ways we hadn’t realised and hearing back how others see the challenges we are facing. Having a chance to speak with someone who understands, who may have either been there before and come up with their own novel solutions or is inspired and enthused by your own approaches, can be infinitely rewarding and relieving. It gives us confidence that we do have a good grasp of all the little details of whatever situation we’re facing, that we are capable of thinking our way through the options, and that we can come to the right conclusions that are not only right for our own family, but could also work for others in similar situations.
The fact is we need each other, and we need a space where we can connect and spend time with other parents, offloading our own worries and hearing others’ experiences that mirror our own. This is very healing and encouraging in itself, and can also be the pathway to discovering what specific support we need to parent at our best, but also to fulfil ourselves as individuals in our own right.
We are very pleased to announce that Dream your Future Families CIC (that’s us!) has received funding from The National Lottery Awards for All and Herefordshire Community Fund that will allow us to provide a range of services for parents for the coming academic year 2021-22. Our first offering of the year is a weekly drop-in service for parents at Ledbury Children’s Centre. We will be meeting every Monday during term time, and booking is required as we are still following Covid regulations. We would love to see you there and get to know you!
We want this to be a space for parents to relax, meet each other and be heard and listen to all those common parenting joys and frustrations. Our very own counsellor and teacher will be there to offer support, information and encouragement. So please come along, let your friends know we’re here and come and join our warm and welcoming community.