If you ever felt you craved a real parenting community, a place where you and like-minded parents could gather and discuss your experiences? Then start a Listen Bookclub. A Listen Bookclub is a chance to explore the book's Five Tools in the company of others, and a way to progress your parenting in a relaxed and supportive setting. Take some time each week to meet with friends, enhance your parenting skills and leave a calmer and more confident mom or dad.
Create Your Community
Have you ever felt lost or alone as a parent? Living further from relations, modern urban settings and busy working lives all contribute to a fractured parenting community that leaves many of us confused and wondering if we're ‘doing the right thing' when it comes to raising our kids. We may have fallen into shouting or yelling when we promised ourselves we never would, or maybe we are desperately avoiding time outs and threats even though it seems like all of our friends are using these techniques to discipline. A Listen Bookclub is your safe haven for calm and connected parenting. As you gather week by week to discuss the Five Tools, you form a supportive community experiencing and celebrating breakthroughs as they happen.
Take a Parent Time Out
One of Hand in Hand's mantras is “Fill your own cup first.” You are your best parent when you are heard, and a Listen Bookclub is an ideal platform. Voice your fears and concerns among a supportive group, and talk about how parenting is working in your house and theirs. Add in some good food, and this is one time out you'll want to take. (And the only ‘time out' we'll ever promote!)
Deepen Your Understanding
Listen gives you a complete roadmap for connected parenting, but just like finding your way in a new place, the experience is often easier and more revealing when you roam a new landscape with a partner or friends. This is the first time that you'll find all of Hand in Hand's connection parenting techniques together in one place, so even if you are familiar with the tools, exploring them as a group one by one week by week will reveal new insights. For those new to the approach, a Listen Bookclub gives you a perfect first stomping ground to discuss and try the tools – and cheer each other on!
Compare your Experiences
As you try the tools with your children there will be many successes, but there is no doubt you will have questions: What tools do others have success with? Did you choose the right tool for the situation? Your child has suddenly started biting others, what works to stop it? You can't stand the whining, how do others deal with it? The benefit of a Listen Bookclub is that you are all coming from the same page, with no judgments and no shame.
Grow Together
Your time together can flourish and grow. We recommend meeting to work through the tools for at least six weeks, but beyond this many of you might decide to keep weekly or monthly meetings going to strengthen your knowledge and offer support through shared experiences. Maybe you'll introduce your children to each other, maybe you'll start babysitting each other's children, knowing that you all come from the same parenting point of view. You may decide to form Listening Partnerships from among group members so that you have regular listening time with someone you know and trust. And you might begin new Listen Bookclubs to share this transformative parenting approach with others.
Don't forget to print our Listen Parent Book Club Guide for info on how to set up.
Buy the book
Ebook: Listen: Five Tools To Meet Your Everyday Parenting Challenges
Print: Listen: Five Tools To Meet Your Everyday Parenting Challenges
(or wherever books are sold)
