I am a unicorn!

Figuratively and not literally. In fact, the unicorn is my spirit animal (although some would argue if it is an animal at all). The point being, that we are all unique. I am a parent coach focusing on time management and productivity as a means to help parents “parent authentically.” Sometimes when people find out what I do for a living, they ask, “Do you teach David Allen’s Getting Things Done?” or “Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People?” And my answer is always, “Yes and No. I tailor what I teach to my clients and so if learning this would be helpful then yes if learning pieces of this would be helpful then that's what I do, and if it wouldn’t be helpful at all, then no.”

See no two people are alike and we each learn is different too. So how I work with my clients has to fit my client. Even my upcoming long program has the ability to be tailored to each client. The 12-step program is a framework to jump off from in helping an individual parent be the best parent they can be.

And shocker of all shocks, this is true for our children as well. We often see some of ourselves in them, but that doesn’t mean they are us. In fact, I see some of her dad, my paternal grandmother (for whom my daughter is named), and my mom in her. As a parent, I have had to understand this about my daughter and work with her to the best we can.

Now I only have one daughter. What if you have two or more children? Take a page out of my parents’ parenting manual. In an effort to save time, my parents sent my older sister and I to the same school. At the end of first grade, they realized the school was not a good fit for me. By the start of second grade, I was at a new school that fit my learning style better. My sister and I never attend the same schools again. My parents understood that my sister and I were each our own person— our needs were, our personalities were, and our learning styles were all different.

Just as I recognize that each of my clients is different and needs to learn tools that work for him or her, we as parents, need to recognize that our children are each different even if they have some of our traits (hopefully the good ones).