(Long Island, NY) A February 28th workshop at the Kermit W. Graf building in Riverhead illustrates a sometimes-overlooked resource new parents have; a community of people just like them, all learning through a difficult time. The workshop, called “Living With Toddlers” is in many ways, a smaller version of something people in the corporate world have benefited from for decades.
In the business world, conventions and workshops are designed to educate, inform and help those ‘in the biz’ make contacts with one another. These conventions are often viewed as “team building” activities and offer ways to work out problems and difficulties. Why shouldn’t parents take advantage of the same thing in the form of parenting workshops? While vastly different from their corporate counterparts in terms of presentation and topic, the basic results are the same.
At the business convention, cards are traded, ideas are shared on how to get the job done more effectively, and friendships are started on the basis of common ground; similar corporations, school connections, common associates, any of the ways people routinely bond. Parents can get the same kind of connections at parenting workshops. A harried, frustrated stay-at-home dad or mom will find many others in the same situation. New parents who learn from the experience of their peers over coffee and donuts find themselves going home with new tools to use “on the job” with their kids.
The convention experience often includes training and literature that can help expand a person’s knowledge base with regard to selling, efficiency and time management. The same goes for a parenting support group or workshop. Even if you don’t purchase any books or opt only to attend the free seminar portion of a support group, you’ll come away with a wealth of information on how to do your parenting job better.
The “Living With Toddlers” workshop itself is advertised as a way to teach new parents how to develop realistic expectations on child development during those critical first years, much like a corporate seminar would instruct new managers on how to groom their new hires in how to properly bring the new employee onto the team as a fully functioning part of the group. Some new parents might balk at the idea that anyone else could teach them something about how to raise their child, but who in the business world honestly thinks they can’t learn something from the experience of tried-and-tested success story? It’s the exact same thing with parenting. Viewed from a corporate standpoint, it makes no sense at all to refuse some ‘insider’ information. Your bottom line at home won’t be dollars and cents, but the results are the same—improved efficiency and better use of the time you have to spend with the family.
In the corporate world, there is often no room for mistakes that are easily avoided by listening to advice; so much more so with children. In your busy life, can you afford to spend time on trial and error learning that could be avoided with the help of information gained at a workshop or support group? Often times, parents are too busy to devote the time to attend—but a new stay-at-home parent may find the investment worth the effort. Not all business people have the time to go to seminars, either. Those who can find a way to make the time find themselves headed back to the office with a renewed sense of purpose. Sometimes the most important part of the experience is just the knowledge that there are others out there who have been there, and understand. Other times the information itself is the most valuable part. Either way, that refreshed, ‘ready for the world” feeling is priceless.
Parenting Workshop: “Living With Toddlers” on February 28, 2006 and March 7 7:00PM-9:00PM at the Kermit W. Graf Building, Riverhead, NY.
For more information call 631-727-7850, extension 340 or e-mail to dk232@cornell.edu
