On Tuesday evening I presented some of the basic ideas of how to parent a child with difficult behaviors to a great group of parents. One of the main ideas in my presentation is that we as parents need to stay regulated in order to connect with our child, help them become regulated and then to teach them.

The following day, as I stood on the playground with one of the parents who attended the presentation, watching our children play, I said something to the effect that I'm not regulated all of the time but I continue to try! The other mom remarked that she was relieved to hear me say this. We laughed and went on with our conversation.

Later as I came back to the conversation in my head it dawned on me that we as parents can offer each other so much if we would recognize we are all trying our best to parent our children and yet we all fall short sometimes. If we could reach out to one another to support the efforts we see and encourage one another it seems to me we would make more progress. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all spoke the same language of regulation/dysregualtion too and had a similar understanding of our children's and our behaviors. I imagine it would be easier to support one another because we wouldn't jump to a judgement and turn away. We might offer some support to help the parent regulate, offer a small gift of time or even a nod of acknowledgement in support of the parents efforts! Now that would be a sure sign of parenting with love...love for our children...and love from our community! Melanie