I'm a stay at home mom, and sometimes that's a really hard job. Its not so much the long hours and endless work - that has its own rewards of being with my children and being able to set my own schedule and pace. Its more the lack of recognition and the crappy pay. After all, there is no annual review where someone says "you're doing a great job and we're so glad to have you with us!" and the pay is pretty self explanatory - there is none! Unless you count room and board. Again there are compensations; hugs from the kids, knowing I don't have to call in to anyone when they are sick, etc.
But its also hard because sometimes you just don't know what you are doing! Mine didn't come with instruction manuals. And it's not something I've ever done before. I've never raised a ten year old, but I'm soon going to be!
So what's a mom (or dad) to do? Besides going on blind instinct? Get advice from someone who's done it before and apply it to your situation as best you can. After all, you know your child(ren) better than anyone else. And it doesn't have to be an "expert" it can be your mom, or other friends and family.
Here are a few audio resources:
"Surviving the Teenage Years" by Mickey Michaels. Acoording to the site this won't be free forever, so get it while you can! There are also some parenting articles if you are interested in reading them.
The "Love and Logic" folks have some free audio including "Funny Parenting Stories", "Funny Classroom Stories" and some of their radio shows.
Get some free audio parenting tips from radio interviews with Kelly Nault here. They are located at the bottom of the page.
You can get a free audio chapter of the book Scream Free Parenting here.
And let's not forget some of the resources mentioned in previous posts. LearnOutLoud has 7 free audio titles in their free section under parenting. And Podiobooks has Lessons from the Geek Fu Master listed when searching for "parenting".
There you have it, a few free audio resources for parents who occasionally feel like tearing their hair out :)
Happy Listening!
