Iowa State University Extension

Problem:
Parent education has been offered in Cedar County through funding from Prevent Child Abuse Iowa beginning in 2004. The four public school districts in Cedar County have supported this opportunity for families - Bennett-Durant, North Cedar, Tipton, and West Branch. The goal for the 2006-2007 academic year was to offer a series for families with children , Preschool through 5th Grade.

Response:
This parent education project provides a continuum of learning experiences that reinforces the parenting skills emphasized in Birth - 5 Cedar County Empowerment projects. Research has shown that parent education in the early childhood years helps children be successful during the elementary school years. Parent education in the elementary and middle school years is equally as important. Helping parents successfully deal with the myriad issues that surface when their child enters their school years is the goal of this project. Families First of Cedar County and Iowa State University Extension in Cedar County provided the leadership for this parenting series that included overseeing and supporting the work of the trained facilitator for the project. The West Branch and Tipton Community School Districts provided facilities and assisted in marketing the series.

Impact:
Two Building Successful Youth parent education series were completed and one Family Night was held. The first 6-session series was conducted in West Branch at Hoover Elementary School . A second series met at the Middle School in Tipton. Twenty-two parents completed the series. The format for Building Successful Youth included six, 2-hour group-based sessions using the Active Parenting Now video-based curriculum. A special Family Night was held in West Branch where families practiced their interaction skills with activities focused on building responsibility.

The following parent experience speaks to the parenting skills learned and applied by participants: The class had been working extensively on helping children gain responsibility for their own problems. A mother admitted that constantly rescuing her children caused a lot of problems within the family because her children looked to her for everything and she was getting frustrated and worn out. Her children also started blaming everything on other people. They learned they could “get out of things” if they just shifted the blame to someone else.

Then something wonderful happened - her son threw a ball and broke a school window. She recognized that this was her opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to her child. He was “brought to her” by a teacher after the incident. He was crying and the mother recognized that this wasn't the time to really talk about the incident because he wasn't in “thinking mode”. She hugged him and told him it would all work out. Eventually, he calmed down and they were able to have a discussion about what happened. She said she made sure to avoid all the old communication blocks and just ask questions to get her son to talk through the experience. Then, she asked him what he wanted to do to fix the situation. It took a while and they discussed several options until he came up with going to school the next day and telling the principal what happened and offer to pay for the window.

The next morning, the mother really wanted to rescue her son, but she didn't give into that feeling and allowed him the wonderful opportunity to experience the consequences of his choices. The principal was empathetic and explained to the boy that the school's insurance would pay for the window, but she would like him to help clean around that area to help get it ready for the new window. The child learned he can mess up and recover from it. He learned that he could accept the consequences of his decisions, which helps build self-discipline and sense of responsibility. The mother learned that she could support her children without taking away their sense of responsibility and that her children would be better off in the long run because of her positive parenting actions.

Contact:
Wendy Peterson
331 East 8th Street
DeWitt, IA 52742
563-659-5125
wpeterso@iastate.edu