PARK SLOPE — An upcoming series of workshops led by a longtime family coach are designed to help parents who are struggling to explain this year's election to their children.
Sharon Peters of Parents Helping Parents will host the sessions, which are open to anyone regardless of political persuasion or ability to pay. Participants can pay as little as nothing or up to $50 for the 90-minute workshops.
The parents-only (no children are allowed to attend) workshops will offer a "respectful and caring" environment where moms and dads can vent, share feelings and hear from fellow parents about how they're handling post-election questions from kids, Peters said.
She'll also offer her own tips about how parents can "model humanity" in their relationships with everyone and how to avoid becoming isolated.
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Parents often feel pressure to explain world events quickly to children, but it's usually best to start just by hearing kids out when they share their thoughts and feelings, Peters said.
Peters offered similar workshops after 9/11. She's not technically a therapist but describes herself as a parenting coach.
A one-time teacher who raised birth, step and adopted children, Peters founded Parents Helping Parents in 1995. She offers one-on-one counseling for parents and runs support groups for parents of special needs kids, single moms who've had a tough divorce, and single dads.
"My perspective is extraordinarily practical, it's not analytical," Peters said. "It’s ‘What can you do to strengthen your relationship with your child?' And that's kind of my view on what’s happening now. Family relationships right now are very very important. It's the strength of our communities right now."
The Parents Helping Parents post-election workshops take place in the South Slope (the exact location will be sent to registrants) and are scheduled for 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16, Friday Nov. 18 and Monday, Nov. 21. Sign up on the PHP website.
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