Parenting Coaching: STILL The Hottest New Trend

Notice in the following quote from a New York Times article below that parenting coaching was called the “newest self-help approach for overstretched parents.” That was in 2005!

“Parent coaching, the newest self-help approach for overstretched parents, is catching on for several reasons. It is cheaper than counseling, with many coaches charging $75 an hour and at least one Internet coaching service charging $30 a month. It is usually done by phone, letting parents squeeze in sessions without hiring baby sitters or taking time from work. And it is capitalizing on the parental penchant for seeking secrets from pros - the tendency to call in the super nanny depicted on reality TV instead of calling your mother.”
Belluck, Pam, “With Mayhem at Home, They Call a Parent Coach,” New York Times, March 13, 2005

Can you believe that six years later, parenting coaching is still the up and coming coaching specialization, along with health coaching, that is in big demand? In fact the whole human services industry, people helping people, is profession that will continue to expand well into the next several decades! Why? People need people and we turn to each other for help with life transitions, which includes raising children.

The parenting coaching movement started in business coaching. Because business coaches work with each person on a one-to-one basis and take into consideration each individual’s personality and style, they are very successful in helping people achieve goals and move up in their careers very quickly. A coach expert listens within, has only the best interest of that particular client in mind. The relationship is confidential.

The coaching model was so successful on a business level that a demand arose for personal “life coaches” as well. A life coach or personal coach is a person who helps a client set goals for his or her future, determine steps to reach each goal, and cheer the person as he or she moved toward his or her definition of success. The goals do not have to be about money or career, but can be goals like “To become closer to my husband,” “To make time for painting,” or simply “To have more fun.” Like business coaches, a life coach usually charges by the hour and often works over the telephone instead of face-to-face in an office setting.

The normal evolution of coaching worked itself into family and parenting coaching because people in business are also parents and need help with issues that crop up as children change from each stage to the next age. Parenting coaching is not a quick fix, but a way to help parents come together in the plan for raising their children…plans for discipline, for setting values, for knowing how to be responsive, choosing whether to send your kids to college…. on and on. Sometimes in parenting coaching, you have conversations with coaches in their specialty areas:
• Single parenting,
• Co-parenting through divorce
• Coaching parents of special needs children
• Coaching parents of teens
• Coaching parents of kids in the early years

In short, Parenting Coaching is about listening, empathizing, asking questions and sharing love. It is very personal, very individual and case-by-case. Parents can turn their problems around. They can be whatever they want. They can have whatever they want. Parenting & parenting coaching are both about that process.