by Jo de Riva O'Phelan

"Perfection is boring." So says the P5 Parenting course run by the Port Douglas Neighbourhood Centre.

P5 stand for Participatory Program Promoting Pleasurable Parenting.  

We generally hear from parents that they want to do a great job but are often doing things they don’t want to do – like punishing, yelling or nagging. The want to get out of this cycle but are not sure how to.

P5 doesn’t give parents a guilt trip about these types of situations. Instead, the group examine them and learn from them. Each week parents in the course laugh and relax as they listen to audio examples of parents becoming angry, frustrated or agitated as they deal with parenting challenges that are all too familiar.  

The course explains that “As parents we’re the emotional adventure playground for our children as they conduct their early experiments and that’s really hard work.”

P5 explains that our feelings of anger or frustration can help us identify why the child is misbehaving. More useful responses are then presented. These include allowing natural consequences, forming logical consequences or using good communication skills.

This approach is designed, not to control children, but to make the most of children’s skills and energy to secure co-operation and responsibility.
 
P5 is suitable for parents and carers of children from two years and up.  

Some feedback from a recent participant: "I am very glad I did the program...it helped me understand both mine and children’s behaviour and why they come about."

And this: "I have done other parenting programs, however I found P5 to be very user friendly...it had a very down to earth approach to parenting that gave me a sense of relief that I was actually doing OK and it helped me to relax in my parenting."

P5 was developed by Psychologist Kate Birch.  Practitioners or parents with group leadership skills wanting to complete a three day P5 facilitator course in Term 1 or 2 in 2013 can email manager@pdnc.org.au.