ABSTRACT
The handouts are meant to be used during the initial stages of a parenting group. Although the handouts are useful for all parenting groups, they are especially useful when the parents are resistant to enhancing their parenting skills, and/or have been mandated to attend a parenting group. As the group moves from discussion of the first half of the handout focusing on their own childhood and teen years, the facilitator should try to make the point implicitly that as children they were often powerless and subject to their parents' wishes and commands; now as parents they are the ones setting the tone and establishing a relationship with their children. Parents whose own experience has been that discipline requires physical punishment should be provided with alternatives. The discussion of the handouts provides many opportunities for the group facilitator to encourage the participants to reflect on how their present parenting practices would have been experienced by themselves as children.
