| When Parents Lead, Families Thrive
 Young people are facing a mental health crisis but what about parents who are caring heavy mental and emotional loads?
In 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General issued the advisory Parents Under Pressure, highlighting that parents are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress. In 2023, 33% of parents reported high stress in the past month compared to 20% of other adults, and nearly half (48%) said that on most days their stress felt completely overwhelming, compared to 26% of adults without children.
Parents today are balancing the demands of work, child care, and household responsibilities while striving to nurture their children’s growth. Low-wealth families have the added worry of limited resources; families of color also face systemic oppressions. This results in chronic stress, isolation, and parenting from a place of survival rather than intention.
Experts report that these realities create a cycle: parents who are stressed out bring that tension into their interactions with their kids. Without having a parent/peer network to turn to, parents often end up having to attend impersonal, structured social service programs that feel more like punishment and rarely have facilitators with shared lived experiences.
That’s where an innovative collaboration comes into play – Parents Growing Together. Children First and First Up, with backing from PNC and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, Parents Growing Together designed an initiative to interrupt the cycle of parent/child tensions with a different approach: voluntary, culturally grounded, and rooted in peer leadership.
“Parents Growing Together has been more than just me coming in to understand how to deal with my young child but also my 22-year-old son,” said Nakeda Allen. “How to take a deep breath, how to walk away from a conversation, and come back and renegotiate. How to say ‘I can’t have a conversation right now. Let’s address this tomorrow when I have a clear head.'”
Parent facilitators, trained by Children First in trauma-informed, healing centered techniques, were selected because of commonalities with the families they would be working with. At the workshops, facilitators created safe spaces where parents came together to learn, heal, and grow in ways that honor their voices, cultures, and lived experiences.
The findings of this unique collaboration shows that parent-led, peer-to-peer spaces can reduce stress, build confidence, and strengthen family relationships. Nearly every parent spoke of the profound relief in realizing they were not alone, with many sharing that the space eased their ‘mom guilt’ and renewed their confidence as caregivers.
“This work has an exponential impact,” said Inella Ray, Children First Director of Parent Advocacy & Engagement. “We’re not just looking at what we’re doing now as adults; we’re looking at the little ones we’re raising as the people that they’ll become.”
|
