How Did “This is Us” Reveal the Ultimate Parenting Goal?

Jack Was Right.

Last night as I was watching This Is Us, Jack Pearson said something that cut to the root of everything I do here at Parent Focus.

“As parents, we talk a lot about what we want for our kids. I can come up with a whole bunch of fancy words to make me sound smarter than I am, but the one word that I keep coming back to is ‘okay’. We want our kids to be okay… So will you help me?” – Jack Pearson – This Is Us (Season 2 Episode 14.) 2/6/2018

Jack is Right – This is Us as Parents.

After I wiped away my tears from the whole emotional episode and those gut-checking words, I had to own up to the truth that Jack is right. At the core of every parenting decision we make, is the fact that we want our children to be ‘okay’. Anything more than okay is great. Anything less is failure. But okay? Okay is the star we aim for in each of the decisions, actions, and statements we make as parents. When we look in on our sleeping babies, toddlers, kids, pre-teens, and teenagers our minds drift to where they will be five, ten, or fifteen years from now. We can’t know for sure, but one thing we yearn for is that everything we did for them in those 24 hours leads to them at LEAST being ‘okay’ in their futures.

For the most part, you have it all under control! You reach those goals of ‘okayness’ on a  daily and consistent basis. We make sure they eat, brush their teeth, wash their bodies, contribute positively to society, and get enough sleep when the sun goes down. You read the books and internet articles from Doctors and Psychologists and you align your actions and decisions for your child with your personal beliefs and the information from those specialists. You are winning at building the ‘okay’ foundations for your child’s future.

This is Where We’re Doubting Ourselves:

The only space you are truly winging it in is when it comes to dealing with your child’s school. You find yourself alternating yearly between one of two camps:

1. My child’s teacher is great this year. Helpful, informative, and goes the extra mile in helping me figure out how to do my part in keeping my son/daughter on the up and up with the school year.  I send an email and I get a response. The teacher steps up and helps at school when there is something my child doesn’t get. The teacher hears me and understands.                                   OR
2. This teacher isn’t as available as I’d like. I don’t know how to solve this kind of homework, I don’t know how to help with these reading levels, I’ve been trying what comes to my mind but I know I’m winging it and that doesn’t feel like it is enough. My emails don’t get responses in a timely manner and I feel like I’m not prepared or supported enough to get my child through this grade.

This is the new normal that we all have adjusted to once our children start school. It is also frustrating to feel like you are depending on having the right teachers at the right time to secure your child’s ability to do ‘okay’ in each grade. The problem is we can’t be consistent because we rely on the personalities and dispositions of each teacher and teachers change yearly, sometimes even twice a year.

This is What’s Missing:

The field of parent educational consultation for general education students is brand new. It is untouched. Space where parents like you can find reliable support, advice, strategies, and guidelines for how you make sure your child is educationally ‘okay’ is extremely hard to find. Even if your child is doing okay now, are you feeling okay with how you are contributing? If your child is struggling in an area, are you feeling okay with the gameplan you have come up with to help them get back to ‘okay’? Who do you turn to and bounce ideas off of? Where do you find solid and proven strategies that you can take and use in your own home when it is just the two of you doing homework, or studying for a test?

Where do you go to find out what your specific role is in making sure your child is going to be ‘okay’? When your child starts school there is no workshop, no training, no “Welcome To The Next 12 Years Of School” guidebook to inform you of your responsibilities, boundaries, and duties for the duration of your child’s primary education. Why not? Where is this support? Why are you still forced to ‘wing it’? Even though you are doing a good job at winging it, how much more effective would you be if you had solid parameters and directions on what to do? It is 2018. The public education system has been around for centuries, but the space for parental education and guidance within this system has only come into existence in 2018.

This is The Solution:

Parent Focus is your space for all the questions, worries, concerns, and support-seeking you have been dwelling on. You no longer have to wait until you get the right teacher with the helpful disposition. You no longer have to wing it when homework gets tough. You no longer have to wonder if you are doing enough. Want to take a peek into your new space for educational support?  Click Here

Ready for an accessible, practical, and easy-to-use daily planner with strategies and routines for what to do, when to do it, and how to do it right when it comes to being involved with your child’s education? Parent Focus officially has you covered: Click  The Ultimate Parent Involvement Planner – Get It Here

You, as a parent, are powerful. You want to use all of your power to make sure that your children are okay now and in their futures. After centuries of winging it and parents having to find their own way to get the ‘okayness’ they want for their children, Parent Focus is here to give you the strategies and support you have been looking for. Thank you, Jack Pearson, for the clarity and the realization that all I really want for my kids is for them to be ‘okay’.

Welcome to the Parent Focus family!

Sincerely,

Your Personal Education Consultant

Courtney H.