As parents attend to the different aspects of their family’s everyday living, most of them become less and less available in connecting with their child and/or partner. Because of this, the family may eventually grow farther apart, and issues on finances, intimacy, and trust bombard the relationship with mounting walls. In the long-run, the stress that emerged from these struggles can affect not only the family as a unit but most importantly, the child’s view of life.

Good Neighbors International Philippines (GNIP) finds the idea of a tight-knight family as an essential element of the child’s growth and development. Therefore, it is GNIP’s responsibility to help parents build a connection to their children and to promote safe and open spaces for a child to express and to be loved by a bonded family. Therefore, a one-day hands-on seminar on time, finance, and stress management as some of the foundations of parent effectiveness was conducted on April 30, 2018, in Mom Center, Southville.

Strategies on managing time, finances, and stress in a family setting were introduced to 58 participants of the seminar. Although problems with attendees were faced as those who were invited failed to come, they were replaced by other eager-to-know parents.

Parent-participants were taught to reframe their perspectives in looking at stressful situations and were encouraged to practice forms of breathing exercises to ease the tension and pressure that they are under. Moreover, they were also taught the envelop system to assist them with their finances and savings. To top off the day, numerous long-term stresses of mothers were also tackled, and different interventions were passed on to them for application when these stressful circumstances arise.