Welcome to Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting

The first thing to notice about this program is that the name of it isn’t “calm, easy, happy parenting”.

Realistically, there is very little in life that is just plain calm, easy and happy. But there are strategies that can definitely make parenting calmer, easier and happier. It’s all in the “er”. That’s what this program will achieve.

The Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting strategies are practical and effective. Practical means you can do them, and effective means they work.

If you have an easy-going child, you are likely to see immediate results when you start using these strategies. If your child has a more sensitive or intense temperament, you may see some improvement immediately, but significant results may take two to four weeks. For some parents this seems like a short time and for others it may seem like a long time. The reality is that if you’ve been experiencing behavior problems for months or years, two weeks is a relatively short time to practice something that will significantly improve family life.

What kind of results are we talking about?

In our seminars and consultations, when parents are asked how they would like things to be different at home, the first thing they say is that they don’t want to repeat themselves endlessly or to keep reminding their child to do things—they want their child to do what they ask and to do it the first time they ask. What they want is cooperation—doing what they ask the first time and without a fuss. These strategies will solve this problem. Lack of cooperation is actually just a habit that children have developed, and when you start using different strategies, they will start to want to cooperate. And the good news is that cooperation will lead to other important habits we want our children to develop.

Over the years, we’ve asked parents all around the world what is important to them—what traits and habits they want for their children. Regardless of geographical location, culture, religion or socio-economic differences, the same five habits are mentioned. They are:

• Cooperative
• Confident
• Motivated
• Self-Reliant
• Considerate

Of course there are other things parents want for their children—maybe it’s “honest” or “independent”, among others. What’s interesting is that these other habits usually come from the five mentioned above. An honest child is usually a confident child. A child who is independent is a child who is self-reliant—who is willing and wants to do all the things for himself that he can do for himself. This leads to independence.

So how do you develop these five traits and habits? The good news is that there is one of these five that is actually the gateway to the other four, and that’s cooperation. Until cooperation is developed, children aren’t willing to do things for themselves (self-reliant) or to be polite when asked (consideration) or to try new things (confidence) or to stay at a task even when it’s difficult (motivation).

Cooperation is the key, and you’ll need effective strategies to help your child listen to you, do what you ask the first time you ask and without a fuss. That’s our definition of cooperation. There are a number of strategies we tend to do as parents that do not achieve cooperation: repeating, reminding, nagging, reasoning, threatening, negotiating, reassuring, yelling—to name a few. All these things may work some of the time, but we’ll teach you positive strategies that work 90% of the time.

The more you practice the Foundation Skills of Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting, the more cooperative, confident, motivated, self-reliant and considerate your children will become. You can begin learning these strategies with our 5-Core Skills CD Series or by attending a seminar. At this time, we have seminars in Southern California, Northern California and the UK. These skills work for all children and teens—for those with and without special needs.