The Parent trap- Caroline Rowett on the privilege of parenting
Today's podcast guest is Caroline Rowett, a qualified Time to Think® coach and facilitator, Transformational Coach and mum of two, specialising in supporting parents through a mixture of online groups, live workshops, and 1-2-1 coaching, where she helps parents find confidence in their parenting, so they can enjoy time with their children.
Caroline's interest in children and parenting began 13 years ago when her daughter was born and she realised she knew nothing about children and needed to learn fast! Caroline now creates space where parents can think for themselves about how to best live their life as a parent. They come to understand the influences on how they parent, and their assumptions of what a parent should look like. With that understanding, they can more consciously choose how they wish to parent. She shares tools for better parenting and information on best practices when needed, but the key to parenting well Caroline believes is "to understand ourselves more fully, so we are capable of developing a deeper, lasting relationship with our children."
Caroline shared some great tips and tools on the parenting journey and my key take-aways from our conversation were that children, no matter whether biological, adopted or inherited in a blended family, need:
- Affection- as it says in the good book, "love covers a multitude of sin"
- Acknowledgement- we need to know our kids deeply through observation, presence and reinforcing their strengths through praise and encouragement; we also need to continue to learn and grow as they go through their own developmental cycles
- Attention- we need to be attentive to our children's needs, be truly present when we give them our time and attention, so they KNOW they are our priority
A great question we can all reflect on as parents/ fathers with respect to our interactions with our offspring is "what is my child(ren) taking away from this interaction, and at what cost to their wellbeing/ our relationship?"
Some great book recommendations for parenting that Caroline shared were:
'Between' by Sarah Ockwell-Smith (most relevant for parents of children age 9-12)
'The Grown Up's Guide to Teenage Humans' by Josh Shipp (Caroline says this is full of great practical advice- she loves his idea that parents are like the seat bar on a rollercoaster, the teenager will probably push against it to check it holds, we need to be like a seat bar and keep those boundaries in place so our teens feel and remain safe!)
Finally, she recommended 'The Choice' by Dr Edith Eva Eger, as a wonderful book for grown ups about survival, choice and the journey to freedom.
If anyone wants to connect with Caroline, you can do so via her website- carolinerowettcoaching.com where she has generously offered anyone who signs up to her newsletter in May will also receive a copy of her "My screentime" workbook to help you address some of the challenges you may be facing with children and mobile devices.
