:: Testimonials ::

I attended your 'Loving discipline' workshop earlier this year. First I must thank you for giving me my confidence in able-parenting back...I was on a slippery slope of struggling to parent effectively and then feeling inadequate as a parent and as a person. I have come away with so much more self-belief and my son has enjoyed a more positive, structured and mature parenting style--it was easy to become the child when I was so very frustrated!

A lot of my friends have seen the difference in me and my son and are eager to learn more.

Last night I sat in the Loving Discipline talk and all I could think of was the night I first heard the talk and was petrified of my 18month old daughter and discipline. I’ll never forget contacting you and feeling so helpless with the huge task of dealing with her. She was a sweet little girl the one day and the next I thought I had raised a monster. Last night I was looking at where I was then and where I am at today. I cannot believe the difference. I cannot believe that I have been able to accomplish what I have with her in just over a year. The biggest issue when I was there last time was self control. It took a long time but I can happily say that my daughter is able to control her impulses. She doesn’t run away from us like she used to (which was a huge safety issue). I also have a 2and 1/2 year old that has the utmost respect for authority. Yes, she pushes her boundaries with us but I am yet to see her defy someone else’s authority and that to me is so nice to see.

My daughter does not fight her bath, bedtimes, car seat, food, etc and I believe it is the result of boundaries. There are certain things in our routine that are not negotiable and she accepts that. She honestly will accept our authority or someone else’s over her. We have hiccups along the way but generally she is fine.

I think for me what blows my mind the most is her staying in bed. I remember sitting in your lounge and thinking there is no way my little girl will stay in a bed with no restraints. It’s impossible. Or so I thought. With training and boundaries now she will stay in her bed and not get out. She will only get out her bed once I have said she may. I even had her stay in bed one Saturday morning until after 7 because she woke up at 6 and I said it’s too early to get up. So she lay down and went back to sleep.

I can take my daughter to the shop and my biggest worry is her pushing the trolley into other people because she doesn’t know about going too fast or stopping. I don’t have an issue in the sweet aisle. Not because she doesn’t want things or because I buy her something every time we go. It’s because she knows what mommy’s no is and respects it.

So why am I writing this to you. I want to say thank you. Thank you for being willing to share with me and mentor me. It gives me so much joy to see where we were and where we are today.

My passion is that other parents will learn the principles that I have learnt and implement them so that they can get to a point where life gets easier. All I want to say is: it works, it gets better, persevere and you will see results. And thanks to you I persevered. I pressed on. And now I can see the fruit in my daughter.

I had grand ideas about what kind of mother I'd be when we spoke about having a little family a few years ago. We even discussed home schooling! But by the time my little girl (first child) was 18 months old I was ready to throw in the towel.

She came to work with me every day and I would try juggling responsibilities of being a staff manager for a church, with entertaining my naturally busy baby! Needless to say, I felt a complete failure. I really felt that I was the LEAST qualified person in the world to have a child, let alone be in charge of her development. At work, I'd try treat her in a way that I thought was age-appropriate - her playing happily with her things for 5 hours in my office while I worked at my desk. The reality was me trying to have a meeting while walking around my office bouncing her on my hip. She would be crying loudly and unhappily for my attention, while I was apolgising profusely to the poor staff member I was trying to have a meeting with... every day was a nightmare.

By the time I came to Carol's workshop, I was exhausted, disillusioned, hopeless and moments away from booking my child into a crèche, and myself into an insane asylum!

What I liked about Carol's workshop was that I saw its success even before going on the course - in her own children! "If my kids can turn out like THAT, I'll do WHATEVER Carol's doing!" I thought. I knew from the get-go that this wasn’t just pie-in-the-sky theory - this worked!

What I learnt at the short, effective and highly practical workshop was that *I* am in fact the best person alive to raise my child; that *I* am quite capable enough and that it takes very little to make a big difference. And it’s so easy! Carol has broken down researched material into a format that's understandable and informative. What was great is that I walked away from the course with a plan. A PLAN! I had objectives for the day - simple and achievable. I was beaming.

My expectations were reset on what is appropriate behaviour for kiddies this age - that its ok to sit on the floor with your 18 month baby while having tea at your girlfriend's house, for example
My expectations were reset on what their attention span really is capable of! Not the expected 5-minutes, that's for sure! 15-30 minutes of active play at the same task became the norm.
It doesn’t take a lot of expensive gadgets to teach your child .
So many practical, helpful, useful, day-to-day skills.

The next day at work was a completely different experience. I finished my tasks quickly and without guilt, because I knew that I had the rest of the day covered. We spent a lovely thirty minutes outside learning how to water the garden with a hosepipe. Then we spent a quiet thirty minutes inside sitting at the table doing puzzles and drawing. And so the day went by quickly and effortlessly. She was bright and compliant and I was thrilled. She had my undivided attention and I could really see the calming, stabilizing effect it had on her.

My daughter is just over two now and we still use the daily principles that Carol taught us. I don’t feel that I'm exaggerating when I say Maximising Learning was a Lifesaver - for both of us. Especially now that I'm a stay-at-home mommy and have many hours in the day that need filling! If I hadn’t learnt these easy-to-use tools, someone else might be raising my child, and I would just be the one putting her to bed at night.

It’s almost a month since the workshop and I just thought I want to give you a bit of feedback. My little boy will be 11 months tomorrow. Your guidance and advice has been extremely valuable. Our interaction with him has purpose and direction and it is much easier to keep him happy and stimulated. We had our first visit to the local library and completed an application in his name as we will need many more books for him. I started buying the generic toys you suggested and realised the toys that entertain get boring very quickly and leave nothing for the imagination. You provided very valuable guidance to me and I am forever grateful for that.