LET’S TALK ABOUT PARENTING: Local Series Talks Parenting Teens, Self-Care
self-care as a parent can be hard to schedule, but this series hopes to make it on your calendar
Self-care is not necessarily a bubble bath and your favorite book – in fact, it’s often a lot more gritty than that. To do the harder, inner-reflection work, there is no one-and-done method, although you don’t have to do it all by yourself. Take the topic of parenting, for example. Folks often say it takes a village to raise a child, and two local businesses are partnering to offer ways to build your village.
Downtown Eau Claire’s Forage (403 S. Barstow St.) and The Family Room have joined together to create a free five-part series, “Let’s Talk About Parenting Today’s Teens.” With five sessions total – though one has already occurred on April 8 – the series offers space for families, caregivers, and others to hold conversations and learn.
There is no fee to attend any session nor a requirement to attend all of the sessions: Each event is meant to be a stand-alone session in case someone is only interested in one or a few of the sessions. Each series event will be held on a Monday and begin at 6pm at Forage.
On April 15, the topic will be Teens & Technology; On April 22, local high school Gay-Straight Alliance Advisor Nicole Dixon and Amanda Schumacher, Parent and Family Support Center Program Director, will be featured speakers of the Parenting LGBTQ+ Teens session; On April 29, the topic is Navigating Teen Mental Health, and an area mental health counselor will be a featured speaker; and on May 6, the final event of the series will focus on Parental Self-Care.
Kennedy Halling, founder of The Family Room, will be present for every session and said the idea to create the series was born through a conversation she had with Lori Borg, owner of Forage. Earlier this year, Forage hosted a similar multi-part series focused on opening conversations around menopause. With the attendance of roughly 30 people each session, the event series was a hit. The topic of parenting teenagers came up, and it was clear there was room in the area for events specifically focused on that topic too.
“As a parent of two teens, I have experienced some parenting challenges that were heightened by a combination of the pandemic and rise in social media use among teenagers,” Borg said. “I wanted to create a series to educate and hold space for parents who may be facing similar challenges. ... I knew (Kennedy Halling) was the perfect person to facilitate this series!”
“It feels good to have a conversation with and surround yourself with people who just get it, who can affirm each other, roll their eyes, and laugh with each other.” –Kennedy Halling, The Family Room
Halling left her teaching career to start The Family Room, creating a resource for those in need of someone and somewhere to turn to for support in parent-teenager relationships.
“There’s a big gap in the support of, education around, and information around (the relationship between) parents and their teenagers,” Halling said. “If you have a toddler, a preschooler, and even elementary-school-aged kiddos, there’s an abundance of resources in Eau Claire for groups and other opportunities to connect with parents of kids in that age group. Those things really fall off once kids hit middle school, and that’s part of why I left teaching.”
The purpose of the series is to connect families with similar experiences together in a space prepared to provide relevant tips and tools, and that will open up conversations.
“The topics (in the series) are areas that Lori and I have seen needs for,” Halling said. “Things like family communication, setting up boundaries with teens and technology, and navigating how to do that, and parental self-care. Those three topics are things that I talk a lot about with the families I work with.”
The final topic of the series, Parental Self-Care, may not be what one expects: Instead of nail care or face masks there will be self-compassion.
“It feels good to have a conversation with and surround yourself with people who just get it, who can affirm each other, roll their eyes, and laugh with each other. It can be a breath of fresh air,” Halling said.
RSVP for the session(s) you are attending, at no fee, via the Facebook events • Food and beverages will be available for purchase at the events • Keep up with The Family Room and Forage online