Still Learning How to Parent

I suppose it comes as no surprise that after all these years of parenting (my oldest is 32) I am still learning how to do it.  Every kiddo is different, and that is for sure, but the Old Guy and I have found that parenting children who have experienced childhood trauma tops the list of the most challenging things we have experienced together. 
It has been quite the road, beginning back in late 2005.  We were fairly self-assured, thinking we had some gifts and talents in the field of child raising after having 10 birth children.  What we did not know is how very different and difficult it would be to raise children with severe behaviors resulting from childhood trauma.
I recently signed up for a course that goes along with a book I first read 3 1/2 years ago.  Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control: A Love Based Approach to Helping Children With Severe Behaviors.
The methods described by this book were totally foreign to me, and I was so very skeptical as to discard it out of hand after my first reading.  Not consequence a kid for bad, horrible, terrible, awful behavior?  That just ain't right.  Here is a small sample of the behavior we were living with and the spiral of negative feelings that led me to be desperate enough to at least read this book:
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
July 2006
January 2007
After the Trip to Hell and back Florida, and a couple months after the Second Time I read Beyond Consequences, God brought about a series of incidents in my life that served to uplift me, give me some perspective, restore my love of being a Mom to my kids and cause me to take a serious look at a different way of parenting.  
When I got an opportunity to take the class that is based on the book Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control... in on-line webinar form, I jumped at it.   I have seen first hand how this approach can change the dynamics of a family in a way I would not have believed.  Yeah we still struggle, yeah our kids with difficult behaviors still have challenges.  But the way we respond to them has changed.  And because of that we are all more content and able to handle the stresses that used to send us into a tailspin of unhappiness... and the result of THAT has been our kiddos with severe behaviors have been slowly, slowly able to better regulate their own feelings and behaviors.  By now I am sure you see that I am fully convinced that it is possible to be an effective parent by going beyond consequences (which, at least in our experience in our home, just escalates bad behaviors in kids who have a terribly low stress tolerance in the first place).
The class is held on line, every week for 10 weeks.  I would like to give you some insights from it every week.
Week One is an introduction that really gives a good overview and a lot of hope for change to those struggling with a hard to parent child!  I have a link that I would like to share but I am waiting for permission to do so... In the meantime, you can find out more about this "Love Based Approach" by going here:  http://www.beyondconsequences.com/