Effectiveness Training had a huge impact on our family

I was a very conscientious parent.

By the time my eldest was eight, parenting had become a huge disappointment to me. I longed to spend positive time with my children and yet most of our time together had degenerated into fighting, nagging and screaming and I wasn’t behaving much better than they were.

Time out, punishments, rewards, removal of privileges, natural consequences, logical consequences, positive reinforcement, and sticker sheets recommended by some parenting experts, – you name it, we tried it and it didn’t work for very long.

I often lay awake at night worrying, “If they are this bad now, what are they going to be like as teenagers?”

After all my high ideals and dreams about parenting, it had become all work and little joy.

At that stage, I enrolled in an Effectiveness Training course in Melbourne and gradually our parenting focus moved from discipline to relationship building. Within a couple of months I noticed that, rather than take the ironing into another room and closing the door to get away from the kids, I was ironing where they were playing – actually enjoying being with them and being drawn into their conversations and games.

Around the same time, one son came to me and exclaimed joyfully that he was making friends with his brother again. We never looked back.

For us, the combination of E.T. and home education created the childhood I wanted for my children and built strong relationships.

My three sons are now all teenagers and are all pleasant, responsible and a joy to be with – a far cry from the delinquents I feared I might have.

I can’t recommend E.T. more highly.  My husband and I looked at it from the point of view of ‘think of what we might save’ rather than the cost.  Relationships are the key to a happy life and E.T. truly helped us develop positive relationships with our boys. We even found benefits for our already very happy marriage.

Rachel Griffin

Melbourne,  Australia