Parent's Needs

Last week I posted a blog titled 'Non-Profit Zone' in which I talked about what actually helps children and young people in need of help. This list comes from the Oakland Parental Stress Service in California in 1976. It may be old but it has timeless relevance for anyone working to help parents in need.

Parent’s Needs (same as children’s needs)

1. Parents need help to feel good about themselves.
2. Parents need to be comforted when they are hurt, supported when they feel weak.
3. Parents need someone they can trust and lean on.
4. Parents need someone who will put up with their crankiness and complaining.
5. Parents need someone who will not be tricked into accepting their sense of low worth.
6. Parents need someone who will not criticise them even when they ask for it, and who will not tell them what to do or how to manage their lives.
7. Parents need someone who will be there in times of crisis.
8. Parents need someone who will help them understand their children without making them feel stupid for not having understood in the first place.
9. Parents need someone who can make them feel valuable and not someone of less value because they had to ask for help.
10. Parents need someone who can understand how hard it is for them to have dependants when they have never been allowed to be dependent themselves.