The Parents Association is implementing the project “Community Parenting Support Programmes” within the ReLoad programme. The project has adapted to the fact that parents and children are at home in accordance with the new situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Now they spend more time together, learning together, going through different educations or simply reading together or playing.
“All of this includes our time together with children, which is why we wanted parents to get expert advice and assistance for the quality time with their children, as well as to apply certain educational methods through webinars that we organise as part of a project funded by the ReLoad programme, ” said Kristina Mihajlovic of the Parents Association.
Roditelji.me has aligned part of their webinar activities with the “Stay at Home Global Initiative.” In collaboration with various trainers, they have tried to prepare parents for the challenges and opportunities that the current situation has presented. During this process, according to Kristina, they were greatly aided by Darija Petrovic Bambur, a psychotherapist. She led the parenting webinar “Stay at Home with Kids – Challenges and Opportunities,” which was dedicated to adapting family members to new daily routines, designing joint games, and encouraging children to play independently.
Parents have taken on many new roles at the time of the coronavirus pandemic – as teachers, organisers, classmates … and in addition, a significant part of them carry out their business responsibilities from home, which all together represents a great challenge and they are threatened by combustion syndrome. That’s why psychotherapist Darija Petovic Bambur also told them how to take care of themselves.
Parents, when establishing boundaries for children, should formulate clear, precise, and positive rules, agree with them, and be consistent in their application from an early age, but should always praise the children when they do what they are asked to do, thus encourage them to listen. There were the recommendations by the psychologist and trainer of the webinar “Parenting for Lifelong Health,” Milos Bulatovic.
“We record all of the webinars, and the videos are stored so that they can be viewed at any time on our YouTube Roditelji.me channel. We also make journalistic texts from webinars in order to provide parents with the advice they may need in a slightly faster way,” said Kristina Mihajlovic, of the Parents Association.
Through the ReLoad project, Roditelji.me coordinated some additional activities related to children from socially disadvantaged families and provided additional support for children with whom they otherwise cooperate. Therefore, in the future they will be able to expect from the Association and its volunteers support in mastering the school material.
The Parents Association is implementing a project called “Community Parenting Support Programmes,” which is supported by the ReLoad Regional Local Democracy Programme in the Western Balkans. The programme is funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme in Montenegro and implemented in the Municipalities of Podgorica, Tivat, Kotor, Niksic, and Pljevlja.