Jean's Message

Dear Parents,

Just 5 short years ago, I was in the thick of raising my last 3 teenagers, hoping I had enough stamina to make it through. I am so encouraged by how these final years of parenting have played out…what a wonderful surprise. I want you to be encouraged too!

The big lesson I learned while raising my five kids, and one that I want to pass on through Operation: PARENT is that any and all effort made to improve one's personal parenting skills pays off huge dividends in the long run!

Together, my husband and I tweaked our parenting one day at a time, one child at a time, as we raised our awareness, added new information and learned from personal experience. Parenting is definitely a learned skill and what a relief that is if you ever feel like it's just not coming "naturally".

I guess I just thought I would know how to "wing it" but guess what? When it comes to alcohol, drugs, dating and technology for instance, it's impossible to "just know" everything you need to know to keep your kids safe. Once I realized this, and became pro-active everything changed for the better.

While raising my first two teens I felt stressed, insecure, guilty, isolated and distant from the very kids I wanted to love and connect with. Welcome to raising teens! While these emotions are normal, they shouldn't be the only emotions a parent feels during the teenage years. Somewhere along the line, there should be some "joy" too! Operation: PARENT wants to make sure you don't miss the "heart to heart" moments that are sometimes difficult to identify when you're down in the trenches.

And finally, the most important thing I learned about parenting is that it should never be done in isolation. I can't begin to imagine how lonely this journey would have been without the parents I met in our classes, at our events and on-line. It was the encouraging words of other parents that often made the biggest difference of all.

It's not an easy job…raising healthy kids in today's tough culture. But if we stick together, we can do it. We might even have some fun along the way!

See you on Facebook,

Jean