Parental Challenges and Development

The theme of parental challenges and development is explored using a list of 30 examples of more or less difficult situations encountered by many parents, which presents specific situations or challenges that call into question or threaten their ability to carry out their parental role.

 

Parental Challenges 1Parental Challenges 2

Using the tools

  • First, parents are encouraged to think about the greatest challenges they have faced so far in their lives as parents.
  • Then, they are invited to remember and describe the means and the resources that helped them to make changes or to move forward in spite of the difficulties they encountered.

 

Clinical relevance

  • This theme explores concrete expressions of the resilience shown by parents at one time or another in the course of their development. This involves undertaking with parents a retrospective assessment of their entire development as parents, of the pivotal moments, and of the personal and external resources that helped them “get through it”. Taking time out to look back at what they have accomplished is often a source of encouragement for parents.
  • This tool can be useful to help parents get their bearings. At the start of follow-up, it can also give professionals a broader view of the persons being supported and what they have experienced and overcome, and later on, this tool can be useful to close the loop. Such a retrospective can give parents confidence in their capacities and help them to believe in their ability to face future challenges.
  • Au terme d’un suivi individuel, cet outil peut permettre de fermer la boucle; ce retour en arrière peut alimenter la confiance du parent en ses capacités et lui permettre de croire qu’il parviendra à composer avec les défis futurs.