What Your Family Needs More Than ANOTHER Activity

0

[ult_content_box bg_color=”#fafafa” box_shadow=”horizontal:px|vertical:px|blur:px|spread:px|style:none|” hover_box_shadow=”horizontal:px|vertical:px|blur:px|spread:px|style:none|” margin=”margin:30px;” border=”border-style:solid;|border-width:1px;border-radius:1px;|border-color:#b2b2b2;” padding=”padding-top:10px;padding-right:10px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:10px;”]

This post is brought to you in collaboration with Weldon â€“ a service we are thrilled be able to promote to our readers.

[/ult_content_box]

You’ve made it through the week. You’ve packed the lunches and unpacked the snacks, you’ve gotten kids on and off buses, you’ve made it to extended day pick up on time. You’ve shoveled dinners into uncooperative children and shlepped them off to Scouts/Dance/Drama/Basket Weaving. The last thing you want to do is find time to fit in one more thing. 

Except.

Except that you can’t quite wrap your head around a whole Saturday at home with nothing on the agenda. “She has so much energy!”, “He needs the structure!”, “She gets so bored!” “He’s going to drive me crazy!”

Maybe. 

Maybe your child needs another activity. But maybe not (probably not).  Your child probably doesn’t need anything else. Could it be that it’s actually you that needs something? Hear me out. 


We used to parent in community with others much more regularly. Extended families lived near each other and saw each other often; we got together with the neighbors and everyone ended up at church on Sundays. We spent significant time in the company of other families – watching and learning from one another. These days, many of us are more isolated. Many of us don’t regularly see how other families interact, how other children behave. As a result, we don’t always have a yardstick with which to measure what is and is not normal behavior. Our expectations aren’t always appropriate, and we don’t have the opportunity to bounce ideas off of each other, learn from each other, and support each other. 

Weldon is a service that is designed to fill that void. Mark Burrell, the founder of Weldon, dreamt up the concept after realizing how often he was calling his sister – a school psychologist – to bounce ideas off her and ask her advice about the various issues he encountered with his young children. He realized that many parents don’t have access to this type of expert guidance and instead find themselves either winging it in the midst of difficult behaviors or seeking out advice from people (often online) who don’t actually know that much about child development. In collaboration with his sister, Mark developed a service that would pair parents in need of advice and support with fully vetted child development professionals who could give them real, actionable advice and feedback about their parenting concerns. 

Maybe that’s what you need to get through Saturday. 

You have limited resources. Financial and Emotional. There’s only so much you can take on. Let the kids be bored. Let the kids fight. Let the kids be home. Don’t fill your family’s plate with more, more, more; fill your own capacity to cope with the normal, everyday challenges of parenting small people. 


And I have to tell you, friends. As I was trying to finish up this post my five-year-old came in.

“I’m bored!” he exclaimed.

“We’ll go to the pool in a few minutes – go get your swimsuit on!”

Five minutes later, “Buddy, please get your swimsuit on!”. 

Nothing. 

I remembered my recent chat with a Weldon Pro. I’d wanted to discuss his disobedience and frequent refusals to anything I asked him to do. I remembered the Pro’s suggestion that I start by asking him to do something simple and enjoyable before springing the more demanding tasks on him.

“Hey buddy, can you spray down the table?” (Is there a five year old on this planet who doesn’t love to use a spray bottle?).

When he came back, beaming with pride after spraying down the table, I beamed back.

“Amazing! Thank you so much – you’re such an awesome help to me, now run right upstairs and get that suit on so we can go to the pool!”

Five minutes later?

 

Who is Weldon for?

Parents of children 1-12 years old that are looking to receive guidance and advice on everyday parenting questions, promote their child’s healthy development and expand their parenting skills.

Who are the Weldon Pros?

Weldon Pros are child development professionals – school psychologists, behaviorists, counselors, and educators. They are licensed in their field and hold either a Masters or Doctorate degree. Additionally, they have 10+ years of experience working with children and families.

What do you talk about with your Weldon Pro?

Sessions are personalized for each parent but some examples include:

  • Grit, Resiliency, and Perseverance
  • Screen Time
  • Promoting Life Balance
  • Social and Emotional Well-Being (mindfulness, stress, anxiety, mood)
  • Discipline / Behaviors / Communication
  • Sleeping and Eating
  • Social Skills / Bullying
  • Grief and Loss

Click Here to learn more about Weldon

Previous articleProvidence Moms Blog is Now Providence Mom
Next articleGrandparents: We See You
Tracy Slater
Tracy was born and raised in Southeastern Massachusetts and currently resides about 15 minutes outside of Providence with her husband and their three children, Max (2012), Ryder (2014), and Lily (2017). As a mother, she has dabbled in various parenting philosophies, and after attempting everything from free range to helicopter, she's landed squarely in the camp of "I'll do whatever it takes to make the noise stop." In all seriousness, Tracy believes that the key to happily surviving parenthood is grace. Whenever possible it should be given generously to our children, our spouses, and especially ourselves. Tracy has spent her career working with mothers and children in various capacities. She has a private therapy practice, is an Infant Massage Instructor, and works in Early Intervention. She has learned that one of things that children need most is well supported parents, and she believes that the candid sharing of stories and experiences is an important way of supporting parents. When she's not at work, Tracy spends her days trying to get outside, writing, and searching for her patience at the bottom of a (reheated) cup of coffee. She is an avid runner, and she loves to cook, obsessively organize, and drink wine.