Parenting Communities of Leelanau County will resume its “Families Together” sessions starting this month, giving those interested an opportunity to gather and explore topics related to early childhood development.
Autumn Jurek, Parenting Communities personal health supervisor, said the sessions are held once a month throughout the school year until May, and while they are not specifically curriculum based, it was dreamed up by a team of early childhood and infant mental health professionals in the community. She said the concept was developed using the group’s knowledge of principles related to early childhood as well as the experiences that staff had from their roles as parents and professionals who work closely with families in the community.
The first session is set for Nov. 18 from 5:15-7:30 p.m. at Glen Lake Community Reformed Church in Burdickville. Dinner is provided, so people can expect to join together in a community meal before parents and children are given a child-led activity to do together. After the activity, the parents and children separate, with the kids engaging in supervised play time with parenting communities’ team members and volunteers. Finally, parents get together at this time with session facilitators to discuss the topic of the evening.
Jurek said having a community that can see what they’re going through and provide support helps make the early childhood years easier.
“Parenting is hard work. There are many ups and downs, especially in the early childhood years, when parents are navigating major life events among other stressors — identity and family changes, careers, accessing the resources they need to support their family, social isolation, the list goes on,” Jurek explained. “We weren’t meant to go it alone… We make connections, we learn from one another, and we buffer some of the stress because we have people to share the ‘ups and downs’ with.”
Jurek said the research that they base their sessions on are grounded in the studies of Infant Mental Health and Neuroscience. Some of the topics people have discussed at previous sessions include child development, parent-child attachment, co-regulation, and navigating challenging behaviors. All of the sessions, Jurek said, are intended to help parents have a better understanding of their children’s behaviors and to also help them reflect on their own emotions about parenting.
“We aim to address the topics that families bring to sessions, so we may present one of the subjects that we planned in advance, and then we explore and connect personal experiences with the topics we’re talking about,” she said.
In terms of community need, Jurek said the attendance rate they’ve seen so far indicates “a clear need for offerings like this” in the community.
“These gatherings are not meant for any specific ‘kind’ of family. I think there is a tendency for people to think that what Parenting Communities provides may only be for families experiencing poverty, or with other kinds of risks identifi ed in their homes,” she said. “But the truth is that everyone needs community, and everyone can benefit from the opportunity to come together and discuss what our parenting challenges are, and to learn and grow together to be the parents we all dream of being.”
Leelanau residents that have children ages six and under are welcome to join in the monthly “families together” sessions. Email parentingcommunitieslc@ bldhd.org to learn more and to start the registration process.
