Parenting with Courage Reparenting As the Path
By Dr. Chrissy Chard, parenting coach and educator, and the founder of Courageous Parents
We are in our fourth and final installment of our series on Parenting with Courage. In our first month, we explored values-based parenting, where you spent time clarifying your family’s unique values. In the second month, we delved into the first pillar of the Courageous Parents framework, that “every behavior is the result of an unmet need.” You committed to putting on your detective hat when your child is struggling to get underneath their behavior and find the unmet need. Last month, we delved into the second pillar of the Courageous Parents framework, that “connection 20 OCTOBER 2023 | NOLAFAMILY.COM
is the foundation for thriving,” where we explored how to build connection capital with our kiddos. As we wrap up this series, we once more remind ourselves of the goal of the Courageous Parents framework, which is to find a values-based approach to parenting where you can access ease, joy, and self-trust by parenting with awareness and choice. Now, let’s get into our final month’s pillar of Courageous Parents: It starts with us. As you well know, parenting is a journey that can shake you to your core. It is a rollercoaster of emotions, with thrills and drops and twists and turns. If we let it, the experience of being a parent can challenge and stretch us in ways we didn’t know were possible. It
can also be a gateway into profound self-discovery and healing. What this third pillar invites us into, is the truth that the power to transform our parenting experience lies within us. Transformation happens not by changing our children, but by changing ourselves. This, my dear parents, is the work of reparenting. So, what exactly is reparenting, and how can it change our lives as parents? Reparenting is the process of giving yourself the love, care, and acceptance that you needed as a child but may not have fully received. Now, I want to add a caveat here–this doesn’t necessarily mean your parents didn’t do a good job. Two things can be true–your
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