As some of you know, this has been a very challenging year for our family.  It was especially hard on my now 4 year old who welcomed a new sibling and dealt with an unfortunate situation with a caretaker we had.  That being said, all of this happened while just being 3 which is a tough age all on its own!  During the challenging behavior, I was about ready to give up.  I had lost my way in the parenting department.  I was getting angry, yelling for the first time in 3 years and he was having daily meltdowns and tantrums that would sometimes last over an hour.  I knew it couldn’t feel good for him and it definitely wasn’t feeling good to me.  By the grace of God, I was introduced to Hayley Goldberg, a marriage and family therapist and Parent Educator through the Irvine Unified School District.  My first session with Hayley I walked in feeling hopeless.  My confidence as a mom had taken a nose dive. I didn’t think it would ever get better and I felt like I was ruining my child’s spirit and modeling terrible behavior.  After just one session, I walked out with a notebook full of notes of things to try when I got home.  It was amazing how much of a difference it made right from the beginning.  After a couple more sessions with her, we were in a much better place.
It is still a work in progress but we are back to having only 1-2 meltdowns per week instead of per day and I actually feel like I am enjoying being a mom again. Â Parenting is the hardest job in the world. Â It’s exhausting and thankless. Â Our kids don’t come with a handbook for every phase of their lives and they are such complex little beings. Â What Hayley helped with the most is understanding my son’s behavior and where it was coming from. Â It made perfect sense. Â I learned that much like our newborns, our toddler’s behavior is our road map for what we need to do as parents to help them.
I begged Hayley to help develop a class series for parents in Orange County so that as a community we can improve how we interact with our kids, strengthen our bond so we have long-lasting meaningful relationships with them and BEST of all…minimize those tantrums that make you just want to pull your hair out and punch a wall!!!!
No matter what stage of parenting you are in – this class series will change your life. Â I can guarantee you that.