BECOMING A BETTER MUM
Elizabeth has six children aged between 18 years and 11 months. Despite having raised four of them to almost-adulthood, she felt she needed help with the younger two.
“I’ve got six kids, but with the younger two I realised I was spoiling them. I’d buy them toys and leave them to play because I was so busy doing ‘mum things’,” says Elizabeth. “They got pretty rebellious and even though I had older children, I didn’t know what to do.”
She knew she needed to be more involved with her children, but says she didn’t know how. “When I heard about the Incredible Years parenting course I wanted to do it, but I had no car and no-one to help baby sit.”
Elizabeth phoned FSM to say she wanted to be involved and they made it possible.
“They got a taxi to pick me up, and provided babysitters at the course to look aftet the tamariki. It allowed me to focus my full attention on learning and not be worried about them. They also gave us a feed.”
The Incredible Years course encourages parents to come to the kids’ level and communicate, as well as teaching patience and strategies to deal with behaviour.
“It’s helped me to put a routine in place, with a sticker chart to reward good effort, and I’ve got a much better relationship with my kids.
“It’s been amazing, all parents should do it.”