What parents say

These are real stories from parents around the world. Names and details have been changed to protect privacy.

1.
 

Janine, Kinark, Canada

The difference in our home is unbelievable. We have a three-and-a-half-year-old son. He stays with his grandma through the day while we work. We come to Triple P together. When we started coming we were at opposite ends of the parenting spectrum. Now we are almost united in the middle.

My husband is less dictatorial. I am less lenient. Our child is less confused and frustrated. Before coming to Triple P my son cried and cried each day because he did not want to come back home with us at the end of the day. He wanted to stay with Grandma. It broke my heart. NOW my son gets excited and ASKS to come home every day.


 

2.
 

Isaura, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles

I hope that more parents can get this support, so that they can be better mothers for their children. At the start I wondered if this course had come too late in my life. And now I have the answer to that: absolutely not!

It’s never too late to learn how you can be a better person and a better mother and to recognise mistakes and make things right again. From the bottom of my heart, thank you! I’m convinced that I’m a different person now and a different mother, compared to what I was eight weeks ago.


 

3.
 

Sandra, Bradford, England.

My son is 11 and has learning difficulties and I’m a single parent. We were always at loggerheads. I’ve done Triple P twice. I used the Group as a refresher course. I liked the small group because I used to think I had the only child like that.

When I saw other parents who are worse off, I knew that, at the end of the day, I wasn’t the only one out there with problems.

Triple P has given me a lot more confidence. Before, I wasn’t able to talk to anybody about the problems. My confidence was going down. This helped to deal with that.

The different strategies I learned, I brought them home. Since I’ve learnt to talk to my son in an appropriate way his behaviour has improved at school too. It used to be that three days a week he’d be sent home from school. His behaviour got that bad - like pinching girls' bottoms - he was going to get himself into trouble.

Even the way I deal with things (is different). I used to take all his stuff off him and he’d rebel. Now I take one thing off him and he knows it’s going to happen. He handles it.

(Then there are) strategies such as computer use. Ten minutes before computer time is up, I give him a prompt. He knows it will be time to finish up. There’s been the odd little blip, but it’s just much calmer.

I wish we could have done Triple P (when he was) in primary school. It could have prevented a lot of problems.


 

4.
 

Thomas, Glasgow, Scotland

My name is Thomas and my wife, Christine, and I took part in a Triple P project this summer held at the St Francis Centre, Glasgow and co-ordinated by Community Health Visitor Claire Cassidy who is based at the Govanhill Health Centre, Glasgow.

We have two children Jack, 22 months and Mary, 6 months. My wife and I gained an incredible amount of practical information given in a friendly non-invasive environment by Claire and her co-presenter. We really enjoyed the meetings both for the discussion with Claire and also the other parents.

The advice was presented in an easy to understand format and supported well by video. Having the sections broken down into completable weekly tasks really helped Christine and I approach the guidance of our children in a steady manner. Many of the changes suggested were really changes in our parenting rather than forcing something unreasonable upon the children.

We have been pleasantly surprised by how well our children behave both in our company and with babysitters. Although they're far from being angels we now have the tools to control potentially explosive situations and I think that helps for a more relaxing and predictable homelife. And happy children.

My wife and I share the same childhood experiences of alcoholism and family breakup and we didn't want to recreate those experiences for our children. Having no positive parental input on my part (Christine has a strong relationship with her mother) really came to the fore with the birth of Mary and I'm glad to say Triple P came along just at the right time.


 

5.
 

Thomas, Yorkshire, England

I’m a single dad, my son Jack is 11. Jack was getting into trouble at home and at school. My social worker came around with the Triple P video. When it started I was very aggressive. I thought they (social workers) were against me. You know, you’re worried they were trying to take the kids off you.

But now I see they want to keep parents and kids together. I did 16 sessions (of Group and Enhanced Triple P) and Jack got better and better. It worked wonders.

Me and Jack used to have loads and loads of anger. Before Triple P I was doing two to three days of carrying on an argument. I think Jack must have gone through hell with me. I wouldn’t let the subject drop. I kept going on and on and on. Now the relationship is 200…300…400 percent better! We’ll still find something to argue about - but we’ll get over it. And I can sit down and have a conversation and not blow my top!

We have become friends. It’s a fantastic experience I’ve had. There’s light at the end of the tunnel.


 

6.
 

Duong, Brisbane, Australia.

My wife and I have two children, a boy 9, and a girl, 5. In Vietnamese culture we just follow our parents but times change and because we are living in a new country we need to adapt and learn new techniques.

In the course you have the chance to talk and share with other parents. I strongly recommend and encourage parents, both mums and dads, to do it. It respected my culture. There was nothing in it against my culture.