It’s hard to believe that it has been almost a year since the pandemic started. The pandemic is difficult for parents of all children, but it is especially a struggle for parents who have very different children with very different needs. What is the best way for parents to address simultaneously parenting children who require entirely different parenting styles?
OCBA’s Mommy Esquire Committee is hosting a panel to address this topic on March 16th: Different Kids, Different Needs: A Conversation About Using Child-Specific Parenting Techniques. The meeting will include an informative and interactive discussion with panelists Dr. Andrea Brard, Psy.D. and Azizah Rowen. Dr. Brard and Ms. Rowen will discuss the challenges of raising children who respond to different parenting styles. They will cover topics such as dealing with difficult behaviors in children, how to serve as a “coping model” for your children, encouraging independence and ways to access useful parenting resources. Dr. Brard and Ms. Rowen will share what works and what doesn’t from the perspective of a mother and a mental health professional.
The program will be based in part on Azizah Rowen’s article for Motherly Magazine: “My two kids need two different types of parenting—and it took me a while to realize that.” An excerpt of her article is here:
He is, however, neurodiverse, a term I have struggled with and simultaneously celebrated as his proud mom. He has defied all my ideas and expectations of what I thought my kids would be like, and he has challenged my motherly instincts to the darkest depths of my soul. I’ve fallen to the floor in a puddle of frustrated tears more often than I care to admit, and I’m working about a thousand times harder than most moms just to keep him at stasis.
On the contrary, my younger son is neurotypical, and mostly what I imagined. He is happy, sweet, funny and social. He often has to be the peacemaker in situations to help out his big brother. He hasn’t struggled at all the ways my older son has, and watching him develop only two years behind in such a different way has been incredibly eye-opening.
My husband and I have parented these two boys the same, yet they are so very different. It has confirmed to me what we already know—that so much of this parenting thing is not in our control.
Don’t miss this informative discussion on March 16th from 1-2pm that will provide concrete tips on how to best parent different children with different needs. Register by email at [email protected] or online at www.ocbar.org. Registration Zoom link will be provided to attendees day before meeting.
Dr. Andrea Brard
Dr. Andrea Brard is a Los Angeles-based licensed clinical psychologist specializing in treating children and adolescents. Her clinical work emphasizes the use of evidence-based interventions in conjunction with parent training, mind-body interventions, and social skills training.
Azizah Rowen
Azizah Rowen is an actress, writer, producer and musician. As a writer, she has been a contributing author for Beyond Mom and Mother.ly since 2014 and has been featured in Huffington Post. Ms. Rowen lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
