Why Did We Become Parenting Coaches?

Read more about Parent Coaching: Raising Children Consciously

It would be easy to say that a shared passion for the well-being of children led us all here, but the truth is that it was only the first step in a long journey. Like Harry Potter before his first birthday trip to Hogwarts with Hagrid, we were just surviving life (and the lack of cake) when the wisdom of conscious parenting arrived on our doorsteps and began to reveal a world to us which we knew nothing about.

At first, we soaked up all of the knowledge of child development and psychology. Some of us were anxious parents, constantly fretting about unconscious teachers or choking hazards. Others already had at least one child that was difficult. And some lived in an endless paralyzing loop of second-guessing their parenting decisions. Should I have held a boundary? Should I punish her when she disrespects me? Did timeouts make him worse?

As we continued our training and started to receive our own coaching and mentoring, we realized that this journey was, and always had been, about us.

In fact, conscious parenting coaches like those here at The Family Alchemists are focused on the care and keeping of you! That’s why our matching quiz has more questions about you than your children.

It was always about the child inside of us, hanging out in our shadows, now straight-up causing attention-seeking chaos.

It was about the relationships we grew up observing that were now playing out in our marriages.

It was about eating 4 potato cakes worth of denied feelings or filling every conversation with more gossip than a Real Housewives episode.

It was about our fear of accidentally screwing up our kids, or the broken record of bullying ourselves for not being good enough.

As we learned exactly what children needed, it began to become abundantly clear that the most important need of all was for us to stop taking exhausting care of everyone else and start taking serious care of ourselves first.

What our children needed most to be successful adults was for us to stop telling them what to do and start showing them every awesome, kick-ass thing we came here to do!

But letting our awesome flag fly wasn’t always easy. In fact, it could be downright lonely and bittersweet at times, as we said our goodbyes to average-ville and peeled off the emotional baggage weighing us down our entire lives.

Tears were shed on our calls with our coaches. But so were lousy old beliefs we never really believed anyway. Old stories about how we suck and everyone else is doing this life thing way better.  By the time we hung up, we didn’t even KNOW the girl who’d been ugly crying anymore. Just. Like. That.  It got real. 

In our exercises and tools, we’d go deep on why we behave or think the way we do, sometimes facing depressing memories head-on. Yet each time we looked them in the eye, those heavy burdens (that didn’t even belong to us!) dropped from our grasp. True peace and love began to radiate throughout our bodies. Gratitude became our constant companion.

And if you’ve ever watched the numbers on a scale go down each week, you know what happens next… As the emotional weight lifted, a new, lighter, excited person emerged. We started making small choices that empowered us. Little by little, we started going after exactly what we wanted — whether it was a promotion or a hot date night at The Cheesecake Factory. We became better friends and partners. We took vacations without stressing about the perfect experience for months, did yoga, went to the gym, and Just. Felt. Better.

We even stopped eating so many potato cakes. And, creepy as it sounds, perhaps the best part was reprogramming our minds, so that when Voldemorts (or adorable unsupervised toddlers) wreaked havoc in our lives, we didn’t lose it or start sobbing in public. 

And that meant no angry yelling, even when stepping off the basement stairs to discover the play area’s carpet painted a lovely shade of 5-tubes-of-apparently-they-can-reach-that-now brown.

Having a coach to support us through the experience of reclaiming our right to care for ourselves first opened the door to a world of Killin’ It attitude we never knew existed for non-Oprah’s like us.

Becoming the best you is really all you have to do to raise the best them.

We see this play out now every day in our lives. We’re pretty proud of the models we’re becoming more of every week, because when our kids reflect that behavior back to us?!?!

“You cleaned up your mess without me asking??” 

Girl, it’s SO worth it!!

When we’re healthy, happy, and in love with life, then we raise a child who is, too.

Being the best version of you is not a luxury as a parent. It’s a necessity.

So that’s it. We may have started our journeys because of our own parenting anxiety, but we do this work now because we want YOU to know for yourself the pure, sparkly, rainbows and unicorns magic that is waiting for you on the other side.

What are you waiting for?  Let’s JUMP IN. Go find your Family Alchemist now and say goodbye to a mediocre life.