[Quinzel]

I did parenting courses, multiple times over the years. The best parenting course I ever did was one that was taught by a team of psychologists who specialised in child psychology, and also maternal mental health. I had to do the course as part of my treatment and recovery for postnatal OCD. The course itself was based on attachment theory. The stuff I learned from it, I’ve carried with me through the years. Then… when my kid was struggling in school, I got an educational psychologist who did some assessments and created a individualised report and learning plan for his specific needs, I give the report and plan to teachers.

I rate attachment theory pretty highly and would say, if you can’t access parenting courses based on this stuff, you still might find some good books in the library for parenting strategies based on attachment theory, and also Google scholar if you’re feeling super academic and wanting to get nerdy about it.

In contrast, the worst parenting course I ever did was one that was hosted by community do-gooders which based their techniques on ideologies around what they believed were the socially accepted family values that all people should adopt. It was not culturally appropriate for a lot of reasons and just awful, so when it comes to parenting courses do your research before jumping in… And when parenting gets hard, which if often does, or you feel like you’re out of your depth, getting advice from experts is fine, it doesn’t mean you need some fancy label or clinical diagnosis, sometimes an outsider perspective on family dynamics in general can be pretty helpful.

[gillyb]

Thanks, I really appreciate the answer!

I've read a few books on parenting, various online articles and was also at some short seminars. My experience is very similar to yours in that when the people writing/teaching were just basing their knowledge on opinions or trends I feel like it was usually bad advice. When I read a book or article coming from people that worked in the field as developmental psychologists or experienced and well-educated social workers I felt the advice given was much, much better. That was the point of my question - trying to find resources that come from reputable people. I feel like it's very hard to find 'the good stuff'..

Regarding your point on seeking experts advice - I totally agree. I'm no stranger to the idea, and have been to psychologists quite a few times throughout the years. I'm definitely not against it, and when I'll run into difficult situations i'll definitely take that as an option as well. I was hoping to find sources of good advice for the day-to-day stuff that all parents deal with.