I I had the opportunity to attend the Uplift Families Parenting Conference a few months ago and I am so glad I did! It was such a fun date night, but also a great event where I left feeling inspired to be a better parent.
The dinner was delicious and definitely a bargain for all that was served. Even better than the food, were all the amazing speakers and the valuable information they shared. It was a great night of learning and entertainment with a fun mini concert from Joshua Creek.
Being a parent is hard! That's why it is so great that Utah's First Lady Jeanette Herbert created this initiative to connect parents to amazing information and resources to help with parenting. Best of all, if you didn't have the chance to attend, videos from the conference are now available for everyone to view. Plus, you can also view videos from previous years' conferences.
I am so excited to share some of the awesomeness from this conference and would encourage you to view all the videos online. Here's a mini recap of my take-aways from each speaker:
Brad Barton – Got Grit?
Brad holds the Masters Track & Field age-group world record, is an NCAA All-American, Author, Magician and Speaker. He spoke of his own struggles in his life and all that he endured to reach his own goals in life and track & field.
He spoke on how we need to allow kids to experience failure. Failure only exists for those that quite. We need to also give our kids perspective. I love the comparison he gave to a battery. A battery has a positive and negative side. It needs both sides to work. We need to experience the good and the bad and realize that having problems brings pain, but it's also beautiful and amazing.
Carmen Rasmusen Herbert – Discovering the Who in You
Carmen placed 6th on Fox's “American Idol” in 2003 and has since appeared on many talk and entertainment shows.
She gave here experiences as a mother of four young boys. She spoke of an incident where she told her son that he was “acting like a bully”, and he then believed it and became a bully. She spoke of the huge impact we have on shaping our kids and their self esteem.
Clay Olsen – What Kids Wish Parents Knew About Pornography
Clay co-founded Fight the New Drug, a youth activities movement dedicated to raising awareness on the harmful effects of pornography. He has also developed an online recovery program called the Fortify Program, to help individuals overcome pornography.
I found this presentation especially interesting on how pornography has changed over the years. He talked about how harmful and violent it has become. Not only does porn hurt relationships, it actually changes your brain and becomes an addiction similar to drug and alcohol addictions. You can find a free guide for parents at fightthenewdrug.org.
Lucy Delgadillo – Money Talks
Her experience in journalism, sociology, political science and family life has allowed her work to be published in more than 100 articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
She spoke on money and finances, but mainly how our thinking and feelings about money affect us. She gave some great tips on how to discuss money issues so that it doesn't become a big problem, such as setting a time limit to discuss financial issues or using the back to back method.
Matt Townsend – Parenting Like a Gardner
Matt is known as one of America's top presenters in the field of Human Relations and Development and is well known in Utah as a contributor for “Studio 5” and his weekly radio show “The Matt Townsend Show”.
Matt had the audience in tears with laughter from his stories and experiences. He spoke of how parenting is like being a gardener. As a gardener you need to know your seed, is it a tomato seed, a pumpkin seed, ect. Every seed (child) is different and has different strengths and weaknesses. You must nurture the needs of your seed – do your children trust you, feel appreciated, and feel respected? Last of all you need to protect your seeds (children) from the weeds. There is a lot of garbage in the world and you need to do your best to protect your children from it.
Don't forget to check out the Uplift Families website where you can find some great resources. You'll find great tips and videos for kids of all ages and struggles with subjects like Autism, Eating, Gangs, Bullying, Suicide, Addiction and more. Plus, find videos from this years' conference.
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