What's a parent to do when the "naughty chair' just doesn't work? Life just won't be the same for the kids of Petersham after their mums and dads go to church to get advice from an expert.
"Life has become so busy that parenting is becoming more and more reactive," says Jenny Brown, Director of the Family Systems Institute and member of St Thomas', North Sydney, who will be speaking at a seminar held next Wednesday at All Saints', Petersham.
"The question for parents has become "what's going to relieve the tension?' rather than "what sort of person do I want my child to become?'"
Antony Barraclough, minister at All Saints, Petersham, says that ever since Supernanny " the television show featuring the no-nonsense Jo Frost who dealt out advice to parents with badly-behaved children " parenting has been identified as an important issue.
"People are realising that parenting doesn't just happen. It's something that needs to be thought about," he says.
"And I'm particularly concerned that Christians think about it "Christianly'"that they think about everything they do from a Christian perspective."
Christians do have an advantage when it comes to parenting, argues Ms Brown.
"Christian parents face the same things as everyone else: pressures on their time, and the pervasive view that parents need to give their kids every opportunity for happiness," she says.
"But I do think that Christian families have the benefit of a clear set of guidelines and goals for character building.
"It's not that the Bible is a psychology textbook or a parenting handbook, but there is a real clarity there about what sort of moral character parents want for their children."
Part of the problem is that many parents only seek help when they hit a crisis, says Ms Brown.
"Motivating people to prevent some of these problems is always a challenge. Many parents are so time-pressured that putting the time aside to attend something like this is difficult to do.
But it is really important to slow down, and take a moment to refocus our parenting."
Mr Barraclough sees this as a key time for churches to be offering more events like this.
"I'm really excited about this because society wants to know, and Christians want to know. People want to be good parents."
The seminar will be held in the hall at All Saints Petersham, 325 Stanmore Road, Petersham on Wednesday, 27 September, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. The topic: “What do you do when ‘time out’ doesn’t work anymore and there is no Super Nanny to be found? - parenting advice from a Christian expert.”
Visit [url=http://www.allsaintspetersham.org.au/]http://www.allsaintspetersham.org.au/[/url] for more details.
Story by Andrew Robinson
