Call Nuggets

Patty Wipfler

Helping Parents When Parenting Gets Hard

May 2, 2020

Last Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Patty Wipfler.

Patty Wipfler is the founder and Program Director of Hand in Hand Parenting, a non-profit, parent-led organization that helps parents when parenting gets hard. Her work focuses on building parents’ emotional understanding and on helping parents to establish networks of mutual support that benefit their families and communities. For more than 45 years, she has been teaching basic listening, parenting, and leadership skills to parents. Her team works in the United States and 17 countries. Patty co-wrote Listen: Five Simple Tools to Meet Your Everyday Parenting Challenges. Her Listening to Children booklets have sold over 800,000 copies and are available in 10 languages. Patty’s focus on children began at an early age, when the health condition of her infant sister led to a cascade of stress, difficulty, and harm in Patty’s family that exacted a high price from each of them for decades.

Below are some of the nuggets from the call that stood out for me ...
  • Play amounts to love; listening amounts to love; trusting people amounts to love; trusting the healing process amounts to love.
  • Children are good through and through. They love to cooperate. They love to include as long as they are in an environment in which they are respected and feel connection.
  • The thing that Maryanne [Patty's disabled sister] taught me was that every single person in this world is important--vastly important.
  • When we are not functioning well, not thinking well, the way you can rectify that is build a relationship where you know you are safe and cherished, where you can cry, tremble, laugh, shake, yawn...where hurt can be processed and let go.
  • You can see how much capacity we have as humans to love.
Additional Resources

Find a Listening Partner

If starting a Listening Partnership feels a little awkward or you’re hesitating, try reading this blog post, When a Listening Partnership Feels Like a First Date 

Free Ways to Connect Subscriptions
Hand in Hand Parent Club – actively moderated subscriber group with extensive member services and many parents looking for Listening Partnerships. ~375 members

One-on-One
Feel like some individual one-on-one support is needed right now? You can get personalized help on your schedule with a confidential Hand in Hand Parenting consultation.

Change Parenting, Change the World

Free Resources Fee-based resources
  • We offer self-guided classes--on Separation Anxiety, Aggression, Sibling Rivalry, Setting Limits and Building Cooperation, Sleep, Raising Happier Tweens and more.
  • List of in-person classes by geographical area.
  • Calendar for our online Starter Classes, available at many times of the day, via conference call in small groups.
  • Our booklets and the book, Listen: Five Simple Tools for Meeting Your Everyday Parenting Challenges, are here.
  • One-on-one parent consultations can be helpful in a pinch, or when you see a pinch coming!​​​​​​​
  • Professionals Intensives are designed for those who work with parents in professional roles. Taught by professionals. CEUs available.
  • Our Parent Club Membership is for those who want more personalized help with weekly Q&As, a supportive Facebook Group, and monthly Lives with Patty Wipfler.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Lots of gratitude to all the behind-the-scenes volunteers that made this call happen!
Want the full experience?

Listen to the complete conversation with Patty Wipfler.

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