The CalmFamily approach
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Our approach to educating is entrenched in our values. The community is built upon these as a foundation giving us solid ground to ensure we are adding value to society. We never consider ourselves to be experts, understanding that we are all learning and children are our best teachers.
Our valuesEvidence - we educate with the best possible evidence
Equality - we balance the rights and needs of all people Empathy - we seek to understand and hold space without judgement Empower - we inform and support individual choices Excellence - we keep learning and insist on quality Ethics - we work with integrity and social justice in mind |
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The calmer relationships concept
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Collaborative
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we work together with the other person for solutions; problem solving, and maintaining connection through reciprocity and restoration
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Accepting
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we accept the person in front of us as they are, accept ourselves as we are in the moment and accept the situation
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Length of goals balanced
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we consciously balance our goals to guide and optimise positive development of the other person and the relationship in the long term, whilst meeting essential short-term needs of both
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Mindful
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we take time to consider and inform our approach, we pause before we act, and we maintain awareness of others' needs
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Empathic
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we seek to deeply understand and hold space for the other person's unique perspective, feelings, reactions and thought processes
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Respect & responsive
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we respect the autonomy and boundaries of the other person and respond to their needs
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Our mission
Our mission is to educate and support parents so that their families can have calmer relationships that optimise children’s development and ultimately helps them to be more well rounded adults. We want a better future for our society and have the tools to inform parents' choices.
Vision
Our vision is to grow CalmFamily to reach hundreds of thousands of parents in the UK and across the world. We are campaigning for parenting to be considered a highly valued activity in our society that is nurtured for the sake of our future. Within this, we champion the rights of the child to take a more equal and consent-based role in families. CalmFamily will educate and support parents directly and through the education and support of professionals in the health and education sectors, promoting equality, empathy and an evidence-based approach to raising children into empathic, respectful adults.
Our values in more detail
Our values provide an operational framework for all that we are and we do. They keep us on track when supporting parents and when developing the organisation. We embody our values throughout the organisation and its activities.
Evidence
When we discuss parenting, we base our information on evidence. The information we provide comes from relevant and up-to-date research, reviewed by professionals from relevant backgrounds. This means that you can be confident that the information you gain here will inform and support your choices.
Furthermore, we measure the outcomes of our classes, gathering and acting on feedback to ensure that parents know that our classes work to make them feel more informed, more empowered and more calm.
Empowerment
All parents have an innate and wonderful power, it’s just that sometimes we don’t fee that way. At CalmFamily, we provide education and support to help you understand your most powerful parenting. You are the experts when it comes to your family. No-one at CalmFamily believe they are experts, other than in regard to their own children. We simply provide you with the information and tools to ensure that you don’t feel the need to follow a programme or prescribe to a set of parenting rules. You make the choices and we inform them.
Empathy
All people deserve empathy and kindness. We support all parents - embracing their choices, their background, their family structure and understanding them as individuals. We also feel it’s vital to empathise with the babies and children that we are discussing. We work constantly to further our knowledge, so that we can help parents to gain a better understanding of their children and make choices from a place of empathy.
Equality
We believe strongly in the balance of needs and power in the parenting relationship. We aim for all parties in a relationship to lead happy and calm lives. In this society, children’s rights and needs are often unintentionally overlooked in favour of the parents’ due to a lack of education surrounding childhood. We strive to support parents to understand their children more fully and to operate in a largely consent-based, equal relationship with their children.
Excellence
It is essential that the education and support that we provide, the services we offer and the products that we recommend are all of the highest possible standard. We don’t settle for second best, or for anything that doesn’t provide parents with a calmer and happier life.
Ethics
Integrity and ethics are ingrained in everything we do. Whenever we make a decision, we consider how that decision is impacting our values and most particularly our ethics.
Here are just some of the ways we are ethical:
Evidence
When we discuss parenting, we base our information on evidence. The information we provide comes from relevant and up-to-date research, reviewed by professionals from relevant backgrounds. This means that you can be confident that the information you gain here will inform and support your choices.
Furthermore, we measure the outcomes of our classes, gathering and acting on feedback to ensure that parents know that our classes work to make them feel more informed, more empowered and more calm.
Empowerment
All parents have an innate and wonderful power, it’s just that sometimes we don’t fee that way. At CalmFamily, we provide education and support to help you understand your most powerful parenting. You are the experts when it comes to your family. No-one at CalmFamily believe they are experts, other than in regard to their own children. We simply provide you with the information and tools to ensure that you don’t feel the need to follow a programme or prescribe to a set of parenting rules. You make the choices and we inform them.
Empathy
All people deserve empathy and kindness. We support all parents - embracing their choices, their background, their family structure and understanding them as individuals. We also feel it’s vital to empathise with the babies and children that we are discussing. We work constantly to further our knowledge, so that we can help parents to gain a better understanding of their children and make choices from a place of empathy.
Equality
We believe strongly in the balance of needs and power in the parenting relationship. We aim for all parties in a relationship to lead happy and calm lives. In this society, children’s rights and needs are often unintentionally overlooked in favour of the parents’ due to a lack of education surrounding childhood. We strive to support parents to understand their children more fully and to operate in a largely consent-based, equal relationship with their children.
Excellence
It is essential that the education and support that we provide, the services we offer and the products that we recommend are all of the highest possible standard. We don’t settle for second best, or for anything that doesn’t provide parents with a calmer and happier life.
Ethics
Integrity and ethics are ingrained in everything we do. Whenever we make a decision, we consider how that decision is impacting our values and most particularly our ethics.
Here are just some of the ways we are ethical:
- We don't give parenting advice, only provide information and tools that will assist in parents' own choices and practices
- We only sell products that we believe will help parents
- Any products that we demonstrate to parents as part of our programme are chosen because we believe they are the best possible tools for parents - regardless of cost to us, no matter what corporate deals we are offered by other companies
- We never promote or work with companies that we know use unethical practices - and we check
- We boycott Nestle due to their unethical practices in regard to water and infant formula
- We boycott Clarion due to their ties to the arms trade (this is why you won't see us at The Baby Show)