Episode 20 - Mondays with Melissa

Mending Families is hosted by Melissa Pemberton and she brings you weekly content that is a mix of trauma aware interviews, parenting tips for those caring for kids from adversity, and stories from people just like you as they share their beautiful messy moments. Melissa hopes that when you listen each week, you will feel encouraged, inspired and take a little something away to help you and your family move from broken to mended.

On today’s episode, Melissa gives you some things to consider when it comes to parenting. She also talks specifically to foster parents, adoptive parents, relative caregivers, social workers, and churches as she believes that our kids are “our” kids and we all play a role in their healthy development. 

Topics Melissa mentions:

*Be willing to do your own healing and look at the wounds you have that may affect the way you are in relationship today.

*Educate yourself on healthy parenting strategies that are backed by research. Melissa recommends reading The Connected Parent or the Connected Child to learn more about TBRI, The Whole Brained Child, and the Parenting after Trauma podcast.

*For social workers, make sure you are caring for your own mental health as you have a hard job and it is almost impossible to not be affected by the work. Also, be mindful of how much power you actually have and how that can make the families you work with feel.

*For churches, learn more about mental health, abuse, domestic violence, and trauma. You also hold a lot of power and can cause more harm than good when you are not educated on these topics. If you don’t know much about these topics, refer those coming to you for help out to professionals who do. 

*Mending Families offers trainings on trauma, self-worth and parenting so feel free to reach out for more information.

Where to find Mending Families:

Instagram - @mendingfamilieswa

TikTok - @mendingfamilieswa

Facebook - @mendingfamilieswa

YouTube - www.youtube.com/@mendingfamilies1594