No punishment is big enough…we’re going a different direction
I'm all done letting shame and blame be louder than our instincts.
Because parents I know are exhausted & frustrated by competing advice. Too little sleep. And buckets of worry.
I use words like brutal, frustrating, painful, and maddening to describe the edges and shadows of parenthood. Because these are words I hear. Daily.
Parents who find my work are tired of walking on eggshells and bracing for blow-ups...And I want to make sure I'm flagging them down—
Hey! Over here! Yeah, you—with hands full, coffee cold, head spinning, and not an ounce of patience left. I see how hard you're working.
It’s hard to keep your cool when your kid is losing it!
In a workshop last week, we talked frankly about how impossible parenting feels amidst tantrums, mixed signals, and the sting of even sweet moments ending in meltdowns. Knowing what tools to use when is *so confusing*
...but the real gems of gathering together? Other parents not being shocked by big behaviors. Folks nodding along. Knowing you're not alone.
Parents come in expecting behavior management strategies, and do GET those, for sure...but they also end up seeing their own childhoods differently, holding boundaries more effectively, and discovering how these tools support ALL the other relationships in their life, too.
The slow jam of a weekly group invites awareness of our own needs and a place to notice that the shifts we see with our kids...ripple into other places.
So I just re-wrote the whole invite for Raising Kids With Big, Baffling Behaviors—so it tells EXACTLY what we're up to over here.
This is a legit rebellion in response to preschoolers getting expelled and busy-bodied kids missing recess for not sitting still. We're gathering with a goal to see and hear children, even as they struggle to use their words and curb their impulses.
We're listening differently. And responding in new ways.
We're doing a serious pivot from shame to feel-it-in-your-body clarity. Instead of persuading and convincing, we're slowing down and tracking what their non-verbals are telling us. You'll practice spending less energy pushing past your own limits, enforcing punishment, and pretending everything's OK when it's not.
So you have more energy for tuning into your own needs and more reliable strategies for predicting and containing upsets—without increasing control or power-over kids.
This is a SOCIAL CHANGE course. And a masterclass in BOUNDARIES.
This is NOT a behavior management course in the traditional sense. Because—no matter how creative or heavy-handed—rewards and consequences do not yield true and lasting behavior change, shared respect, or social-emotional intelligence.
We're RIGHT-SIZING POWER and moving away from shaping behavior with threats, bribes, shame, punishment, and focusing on compliance.
Once you start seeing what's REALLY fueling behavior, you can't unsee it.
This is practical, science-based support that will grow your superpowers, and I don't mean being more productive or impressive.
We're aiming for X-Ray Vision—getting to the bone of defiance, engaging heartfelt cooperation, and peeking under the surface of aggression to the tender parts being protected—to where your kids' sweet selves are rooted.
So you can move away from yelling, grounding, spanking, and lectures—toward seeing and hearing kids in their struggle-est moments, and teaching them how to navigate—with fewer crashes and meltdowns.
I'll help you translate the behaviors and see the stuck spots for what they are: Struggles. Lagging skills. Overwhelm. Fear. Anxiety. Flooding. Alarm. Rolling panic. Distress that revs 0-60, without warning! Helplessness.
No wonder things feel hard.
So now, the invite tells you what we're going to do about it. For Real.
And I've updated the pricing structure to reflect the ESSENTIAL NEED for community. If you sign up with a friend, you BOTH get a big, juicy discount.
Our culture has scared and shamed parents into using strategies that emphasize compliance, shame, and power-over—amping up the notion that kids' behavior reflects children's character or adults' capacity to enforce rules.
Neither tracks.
Those assumptions land kids in the principal's office or flat-exhausted by the afternoon...with no breathing room for neurodivergence, lagging skills, or the intensity of daily routines and stress coping. That distress is catchy.
We're doing it differently in Raising Kids With Big, Baffling Behaviors.
I’m running two cohorts in 2025, Fall + Spring. I’ll see you in there 💕
Hang in!
~ MereAnn