Parenting and the President - Part 1 - A National Effective Parenting Plan

The United States has some serious parenting-related problems that are costing billions of dollars to treat and manage.

These include...

• Child abuse and neglect,
  
• School dropout,
  
• Delinquency,
  
• Childhood obesity,
  
• Drug abuse, and
  
• Gang warfare.

These problems are making life in many of our communities unsafe and intolerable. These problems are wasting an amazing amount of human potential.

However, if we make it a child’s birthright to be raised by effective parents and we make parenting education available to every parent in every community, we can not only make our country an even better place to raise children, we can save billions of dollars in having to manage the consequences of ineffective parenting.

Those are some of the major goals of the National Effective Parenting Initiative (NEPI) and its hosting organization, the 35 year old, not-for-profit Center for the Improvement of Child Caring (CICC). It has been my great pleasure and pride to have founded both of these important organizations, and to be working to carry out their missions.

In terms of making it a child’s birthright to have effective parents who receive the best parenting education, it is necessary to (1) create the conditions and opportunities in every community where parents can receive such education and support, and (2) motivate all parents to take advantage.

To that end, we have generated a four part approach that involves our elected leaders in helping to create the needed conditions and services. This includes asking the President of the United States to play a primary leadership role.

Part One - Acknowledge parents who do receive parenting education in annual Parents Day Proclamations.

Part Two - Issue Certificates of Appreciation to parents who enroll in and complete parenting classes.

Part Three - Convene White House Conferences on Effective Parenting to showcase the best parenting education programs and research.

Part Four - Establish a federal government-sponsored Effective Parenting Initiative with appropriate departments, institutes and training centers to insure that all communities have available the best possible parenting education information and programs.

Other institutions, such as the business community, the entertainment industry, philanthropy and the faith community, also can and should play important roles. But government, because it has the ultimate responsibly for insuring that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness becomes a reality for all citizens, is where we have chosen to focus our efforts at this time.

Together we have termed the four part approach a National Effective Parenting Plan. In subsequent posts in this series, I will detail the parts of the plan, and indicate what progress is being made. This will include updating you on our efforts to reach and involve President Obama.

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How You Can Be Involved...

You can participate by commenting on this and future articles in The Parenting and the President series.

You can become supportive through letting the world know that it would be a better place if all children were raised by effective and sensitive parents who receive excellent parenting education. You can express such sentiments through signing our online Effective Parenting Petition (check here).

And /or you can become a member and supporter of the NEPI, the National Effective Parenting Initiative.

There are three types of memberships available, each of which has its own series of educational benefits and involvement opportunities. Click on the membership type you are most interested in learning about:

• Parent Membership
  
• Professional Membership
  
• Organization Affiliate

Your membership dues are not only used to provide the member benefits but to also support the various advocacy actions that are needed to bring these important matters to the attention of the president and the public in general. This entire effort is of a grassroots nature and membership dues, and funds that have been contributed to CICC over the years, are the only monies that are supporting it now.

For those of you who want to make a financial contribution but do not want to become members of NEPI, you can support this grassroots effort by making a tax-deductible contribution to CICC.

Click here to donate.