By Charlie Boyle

Our first pilot course was held at Kea church on Tuesday mornings in conjunction with the mother’s Time Out group, from September (9.30am-11.30am) till December at Kea Church for 10 weeks.   We had no idea how many people would come, so it was great that on the first week we had 35 people and 45 on the second, word just got around through the various local school and mothers network....It was amazing how the course seemed to just promote itself as those who attended the first week were so impressed they were keen to bring along others. Numbers varied each week but there were always over 30, mostly women understandably with the odd husband or father, in between jobs or on holiday, in attendance and one or two grandfathers!

Parents enjoyed freshly made coffee, cake and delicious brownies, as well as a good chat in the church before settling down to watch The Parenting Course DVD (for c.30 minutes) before having time to discuss issues raised. Creating a warm and relaxed atmosphere was essential at putting people at ease, especially those who had not come into our church before. Those people who came with children were well looked after for an hour or so, by a fantastic mix of crèche helpers. It was clear everyone love the discussion time as people often wished it had gone on for longer. Topics covered included setting healthy boundaries for discipline and the bed-time routine, the five languages of love for children and teaching healthy relationships and our long term aims as parents. The content was really practical from creating good family times, to contemplating  why children are different, how to listen better to them, as well as how we too need to take time to see if we are Hungry, Anxious, Tired or Lonely (HALT) before getting frustrated with our children.
 

There has been a real sense of community brought about by the course and I am sure partly as a result of it we saw a doubling of the attendance at our Christmas Eve CRIB service (to 150 adults and children) and standing room only for Christmas Day.
 

We could not have done it without the wonderful team of people helping with the crèche, as well as our invaluable, Trevor, the Church warden and his cemetery gardening team assisting to move the chairs into a more cafe style discussion format. In total over 30 people were involved in the team helping to make this course a great success. It was a good example of the Body of Christ working together to reach out to help provide a relevant resource, which is useful for all involved in the challenge of parenting in the 21st century.
 

Course led by Charlie and Sarah Boyle, the curate and his wife at Kea church.
 

Some comments from those who attended:
“A lot of the material was common sense and what you try and do naturally but it was good to be reminded of it.”
“It was really great to just share with others the joys and challenges of parenthood, I realised I was not alone!”
“The format was relaxing helpful and fantastic.”
“Our family life has definitely got better.”
“I now know what I am doing is a pretty good job!”
“It has made me more tolerant and patient.”
“I felt a lot more prepared in working towards a happy and harmonious family environment.”