HEALTH

Sanity-Saving Help Parents in The Hague are Looking For…

Raising children can be one of life’s most rewarding activities, yet it can also be chaotic and stressful. That's why Passionate Parenting of The Hague is offering a series of seminars in English to help desperate expatriate parents cope with raising kids in a foreign country.

Says Soul Robertson, the founder of the company: “We parents are constantly wondering whether we are doing it right. We are alternately enchanted or enraged by our kids’ independence, their behaviour and the things they say and do. We wonder: will our child grow up happy, secure and successful in this competitive world? Can we play a role to ensure their progress through life’s growth stages? Can we help them face up to the many challenges ahead of them? Can we help them be themselves in spite of influential peers, who might otherwise lead them astray?”

Robertson says most parents are aware that behaviour is the result of nature and nurture and that the parents' role is primarily to nurture. “There are hundreds of magazines, books, blogs and articles about raising happy kids. Advice and tips abound, yet many mums and dads feel alone in the task. They want more face-to-face help and that is what our seminars offer. Parents who attend can quiz real experts on a variety of subjects and can compare notes with each other.”

Judging from enrolments to Passionate Parenting’s 2.5-hour seminars in 2007 and 2008, there is clearly a desire for more expert parenting support in English, in The Hague and environs. These seminars bring experts and parents together for coffee, socialising, a 90-minute presentation, followed by a Q & A session, and more coffee and chatting.

Initially, PP held its workshops on Monday mornings, with a crèche for babies and pre-schoolers. It hired experienced au pairs to look after the kids, while mum could focus on the talk. Now, to accommodate working mums (and Dads!), PP is arranging more evening seminars and even repeat talks.

This year, there is a super line-up of 90 minute talks. Some topics are repeated to cater to the busy agendas of international / expat parents and are delivered in English. Among the topics discussed this year have been:

1. Raising Bilingual Children, by Eowyn Crisfield-Burr
2. Global Nomad Families & Expat Kids, by Graciela C. de Mussini (clinical psychologist).
3. Death in the Netherlands: Wills and Testaments are NL-Specific, by Yolanda Bokhorst (family lawyer), who will discuss what happens to your children (and money) if both parents pass away.

Furthermore, general parenting topics are discussed, to help us recapture our enthusiasm for parenting and to impart us with the skills required to deal with certain hurdles, starting this year with Katherine Fortier (Educational Psychologist) who talked to parents about Defiance: Dealing with Disobedience in March and on How to Raise a Confident Child in May. Vardit Kohn (Natural Nutritionist) delivered her inspirational expertise in Ten Top Tips to Turn Around Your Child’s Diet in April. For information in future workshops and to offer suggestions of your own, please visit the website listed below.

In June, Fiona Curtis (Speech and Language Therapist) will inspire parents to read more to their children, in her talk about Dialogic Reading: a Key to Future Academic Success. Marie de Wulf (professional coach) will talk about Raising Your Child with Your Values.

Passionate Parenting is a community service for parents run by Soul Robertson. She is a South African full-time ‘mumpreneur’ with three children.

These seminars are either from 9:30 A.M. - 12 P.M. or from 7:30 - 10 P.M. and cost € 25 - 30 per person. Half of the profit on these seminars is donated to small charities in South Africa that help needy, abused, abandoned and HIV-infected children.

For more info on these seminars (or if you are keen to get involved in planning and managing these events), please send an e-mail to passionateparenting@gmail.com, visit the website www.passionateparenting.nl, or phone Soul on 06 - 41 85 77 73. Discounts are offered for ‘early bird’ and more than three registrations (conditions apply).