Hand in Hand Parenting

I suggest some research is warranted before committing to this program.
The basic principals were helpful, but the principles exist in relevant literature on child care.
I also found that kids do respond better with some structure and discussion of natural consequences as it relates to their behaviors. My kids were all over the road without some dialogue and structure.
I am into parenting with kindness but, I found that my kids (and myself) did better with a different approach.

note: Hand in Hand teachers are located all over the world — not just in Palo Alto!
I took the 6-​week course Building Emotional Understanding with Angela J. in Berkeley this spring. The exercises and parenting tools were extremely helpful in understanding what’s happening when my 3 yr old challenges me.
Everything I learned in the class broadened my capacity to listen to my child, has made setting limits so much easier, and parenting tasks I used to dread are actually fun.
One of the major themes throughout the class was making sure as parents we have the support we need. It was a great place to get such support. Meeting the other moms and dads, and listening to their parenting struggles & successes was extremely beneficial for relating to my own child.
If there aren’t classes in your area, the Hand in Hand website has a large library of free articles, and on-​line/​audio classes.

I will be forever grateful for the skills my partner and I learned during the Tantrum Training and Building Emotional Understanding courses.

I am a HUGE fan of Hand in Hand. From one generation to the next, societies learn to be more gentle and loving as parents. Hand in Hand is the next huge wave of goodness to wash over the important work of parenting.
I thought I was a pretty-​darned-​good mother before I took the Building Emotional Understanding class through Hand in Hand. I had no idea how much I could improve! I am so much more accepting and understanding toward the difficult feelings my girls experience now. I appreciate the full range of feelings that children and parents experience and understand how important it is to feel them all as fully as possible instead of stuffing the harder ones and welcoming only the happy ones.
As a result, my girls really tell me what is going on in their lives — the happy things and the hard things. And they both have amazing courage to put themselves out there in the world and try their best at whatever they do. They know they can count on me to listen to them if things don’t go well instead of judging their efforts. More and more they are trusting in their own ability to figure things out. More and more they are feeling their own power to make positive change in their own lives.