Parent University Will Offer Positive Strategies To Raise Your Children

Newtown Parent Connection, Inc, this year working in partnership with Brookfield Substance Abuse Coalition and SMART (Southbury-Middlebury Acting Responsibly Together), will present its annual Parent University on Saturday, March 19.

Twelve workshops are being offered this year, with attendees able to select two they would like to attend during morning and afternoon sessions. Parent University will open with registration and complimentary breakfast, welcome remarks, and a keynote presentation by Heidi Rankin & The Act Out Troupe, and complimentary lunch.

Tuition is $5 per person. Children are welcome free of charge, and a bonus Kid’s University will offer age appropriate activities for ages 3–11. The event, which will open with registration at 8 am and conclude around 1:45 pm, will take place at Newtown Middle School, 11 Queen Street.

Parent University is offered to parents who wish to be proactive and learn positive parenting strategies for raising children of all ages. The goal of the annual one-day symposium is to strengthening families and enrich the community. It is open all parents seeking “higher education” and more effective skills in the ever-changing and challenging field of child rearing.

Course Offerings

As mentioned earlier, 12 workshops are being offered this year. Please note two of the workshops, each led by Charles Manos, will be offered only in the morning or in the afternoon, so registrants should plan appropriately.

Early registration is strongly suggested and spaces tend to fill quickly. Full details for the workshops, and registration forms, are available at NewtownParentConnection.org.

Briefly, this year’s workshops include the following:

*“Upstanders vs Bystanders: Helping Your Kids Have Healthy Relationships,” to be led by Heidi Rankin MPA, PDV, outreach coordinator, Women’s Center in Danbury. Ms Rankin will explore healthy and unhealthy relationships using an interactive response style, with a focus on building protective and resiliency factors in our children and teens in order to develop communication and conflict resolution skills and set boundaries.

*“Teens and Drugs: Is it Use or Abuse?” by Charles Herrick, MD, chair of psychiatry, Danbury Hospital, will include startling information regarding the differences between casual substance use and addiction. Discussion will cover why “just a little experimentation” can have devastating consequences, and what is physiologically happening to children and teens when they use mind-altering substances.

*“The Many Faces of Depression: One Size Does Not Fit All.” Charles Manos, LMFT, director of special education and support services for Brookfield Public Cchools, will focus on the different types and causes of depression and its signs and symptoms, especially in children and adolescents. This will be a morning-only session.

*“21st Century Parenting of Challenging Children & Teens,” also by Mr Manos (to be offered in the afternoon only), will focus on the importance of relationships in understanding and working with preteens and teens, including triggers to avoid with their kids, ways to manage their own triggers, and powerful strategies to deal with challenging behaviors.

*“Keeping the Connection: Parenting Through Adolescence with Sanity & Humor,” which will be co-led by Jeff Tolson, MEd, Newtown High School guidance counselor, and Mandy Tolson, MEd, MSW. This class will offer strategies to help parents stay connected with their child(ren) during the challenging and sometimes overwhelming middle and high school years.

*“Tackling ‘Tween’ &Teen Sexuality,” by Bessie Montesano, MD, will cover a sometimes difficult topic for parents to address. A favorite Parent University course, this workshop provides a candid, no-nonsense discussion regarding the sensitive subject of talking to children about sex.

*In “What’s Really Going On In Our Towns?,” Tom Janette, director of community affairs for the State of Connecticut Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association, and Scott Duva, BS, a police officer in Trumbull, will offer a riveting multimedia presentation that addresses the latest trends in substance use and risky behaviors plaguing local communities.

*“When Kids Push Your Buttons,” by Whisconier Middle School counselor and private therapist Alex Boianghu, will concern how counterproductive it is to lose your temper with kids and say things that might never be able to be taken back. The course will explore the forces that push children away and provide methods for adults to re-create connective parenting.

*The presentation by Lauren Wolfe, MS, NCC, “Bully: Friend or Foe — Helping Your Children Foster Friendships,” will emphasize ways to foster friendships between children. Parents will learn warning signs if their child is having social difficulties and ways to help with developing effective social skills. It will also focus on what to do if your child is bullying or being bullied.

*“How to Stay Safe in this Wired World: A Presentation by Those Who Know it Best — Our Kids!” will feature Angela Haselwood and Susan Troupe, local youth who are willing to talk about what is looming in the world of cyberspace. The workshop will share a kid’s perspective of cyber-safety.

*“Adolescent Risky Behaviors: Acting In & Acting Out,” by Greg Jones, MSW, LCSW, Psychotherapy Associates of Western Connecticut, will cover some of the warning signs of children’s risky behaviors, from cutting to thrill-seeking, how to respond, and the resources available for families to access help.

*“The College Experience: How to Really Prepare Your Kids — and Yourself!,” during which Sharon Guck, CHOICES Coordinator, Western Connecticut State University, will discuss transitioning to college life while maintaining a healthy social balance. Her workshops will focus on how to handle binge drinking, drug use, sexual promiscuity, difficult living conditions, academic stress, new pressures, and knowing how and when to get help.