CEU Credit for Online Parenting Classes

The award-winning online parenting classes offered by Priceless Parenting are now approved for CEU credit in California and Washington. Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT), Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Licensed Educational Psychologists (LEP) and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCC) can receive continuing education credit.

These classes have transformed thousands of formerly frazzled families from across the United States to Australia. Parents quickly learn ways to improve cooperation and reduce conflict from the comfort of their own home. After completing a class, Amanda Mullins from Defiance, OH wrote "This parenting class was extremely informative and interesting. I found it easy to understand, and I loved the real-life examples included. I'd recommend this course to anyone. It's truly been helpful to myself and my family!"

Psychotherapist Dr. Marcy Cole suggested that the classes should be offered for CEU Credit for professionals supporting parents. She gave this recommendation after reviewing the classes for inclusion in her Childless Mothers Adopt program. Dr. Cole was impressed with the depth of the information and the engaging way it was presented through videos and stories of real parenting situations.

President of Priceless Parenting, Kathy Slattengren, M. Ed., responded “It was wonderful hearing Dr. Cole’s positive, enthusiastic feedback on the classes. She immediately saw how these classes could help professionals while also fulfilling their continuing education requirements. Priceless Parenting is pleased to now offer CEU credit for the classes in California and Washington. We plan to add more states in the future.”

Different parenting classes are available based on the children’s ages: 5 and under, 6 to 12 and teens. The classes are grounded on decades of positive parenting experiences from real life situations and backed by the latest scientific research in child development.

Narrated slides and videos are used to teach the material with homework suggestions to try out the ideas. Each class is self-paced and takes about 6 hours to complete. There is a short quiz before participants can print out their CEU Certificate of Completion.

Talking to Your Kids about Porn

Do you really need to talk to your kids about porn? Yes. Why? Because it is so prevalent online. Researchers report the average age of a child's first exposure to pornography is 11 years old.

Certainly you should take measures to lock down your digital devices so that your young children don’t accidentally stumble into porn. However, as they go to friends’ homes and ride on school buses, they are at risk for being exposed to porn.

By bringing up the topic with your kids, you have a chance to discuss your family values and how porn fits into those values. You can let your kids know that if they are ever frightened or concerned about what they see online, they should let you know.

You can also share what researchers have learned about viewing porn. According to an article by Psychologist John Sommers-Flanagan,

“Viewing more porn is associated with:

• Engaging in sexually aggressive acts (including rape or sexual assault)
• Becoming depressed, anxious, and stressed
• Functioning more poorly in real social interactions (and ironically, becoming impotent)

Research also reveals that young boys who view lots of porn are more likely to be sex offenders. And here’s the most disturbing thing I’ve discovered. Over 80% of pornography includes violence towards women.”

You can help your children think through the consequences of porn by discussing these facts and how porn and violence against women are connected. By talking through the issues associated with porn, you help your kids develop their own internal moral code.

The book Good Pictures Bad Pictures can help you discuss it:

What do you do when kids are too noisy in the car?

Kids can get pretty wound up in the car. Before you know it, there's plenty of volume in the car. How do you handle it without turning to screaming and adding to the chaos?

When things got too noisy in the car for me, I would declare we were now in “The Code of Silence”. This meant that nobody could talk, not even me. What is surprising is that the kids actually took it seriously and stopped talking! Nobody wanted to be the one who broke “The Code of Silence”!

Building Kids' Skills Through Increasing Responsibility

What new responsibilities are your children ready to handle? It’s easy to get into the habit of doing many things for your kids that they really could be doing for themselves. While your kids may be happy to let you do these tasks, they won’t learn how to clean their rooms by watching you do it!

One mom told the story of how she had always done her daughter’s laundry. When her daughter was preparing to move to a college dorm in the next town, her plan was to come home every couple weeks so her mom could do her wash. She wanted to buy enough underwear to last between trips instead of learning to wash it herself!

Noticing When They Are Ready to Learn

Most of the time your children will not be begging you for more responsibility. So it’s up to you to notice when they are to take on something new.

For example, when my son was about 6-years-old I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. He wasn’t sure so I gave him some choices. Would you like cereal? No. Yogurt with fruit? No. Toast with jam? No. Oatmeal? No.

As he rejected each suggestion, I felt increasingly frustrated. He also didn’t appear overly appreciative of my efforts to help him get breakfast. This was when I realized I could turn this responsibility over to him.

(finish reading this article on PricelessParenting.com)