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Parent Express for 07-Feb-2006
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Welcome to Parent Express, the PCI e-zine! Here you will find updates on the Parent Coaching Institute, along with ideas and practical tips for the parenting journey. Countering Media Violence is our theme for this issue. A Season for Nonviolence is celebrated from January 30-April 4, in honor of the lives and achievements of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. A Season for Nonviolence is a national movement dedicated to the demonstration of nonviolence as a way to heal our lives and our communities. An important way for moms and dads to practice nonviolence and promote peace is through monitoring media choices. The short article below reminds us that media violence contributes to our children’s attitudes, eventually influencing every aspect of their lives and our society, as well. The links below the article are to important research compilations that may have missed your radar screen. These summaries are a “must-have” in your resource bank to share with other parents and professionals. Under our Parenting Tip column, I have compiled for you great places to surf for educational videos that inspire us to reach our full potential as loving, peaceful beings. Since peace begins within each one of us, then let’s all teach children to make media choices that counter media violence and affirm peaceful and loving relationships. To a season of nonviolence every season! -Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO 
Applications are being accepted now for Spring Quarter. (Application deadline, March 1.) If you are a forward-thinking professional with an undergraduate degree and a deep calling to work with parents, welcome home. We seek the “best of the best” for our acclaimed distance-learning Parent Coach Certification Training Program™ . Please click here for more information. As a PCI Certified Parent Coach™ you’ll have the opportunity to create a parent coaching practice, working with moms and dads who want to take their parenting to the next level. Call today for an application packet: 425-401-1519 or email: info@thepci.com. 
You are going to be amazed at what a PCI Parent Coach can do for you and your family! PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ are caring, thoughtful professionals with years of experience working with parents. PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ have successfully completed the PCI Parent Coach Certification Training Program™ — a comprehensive academic one-year, graduate-level program in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University. Through a series of coaching conversations that can be either by telephone or in person, PCI Parent Coaches help you re-discover your dreams and design your life for more joy and satisfaction. To find a PCI Parent Coach in your area, please click here, or call 425-401-1519 for a referral to a PCI Parent Coach selected especially for you. 
Moms and Dads, tune in every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. on 1150 AM for true understanding, authentic affirmation, and real-world solutions to parenting challenges while sharing laughter and conversation. We want to hear your stories too! So call us on Saturday! In the Seattle area, call 425-373-5527. Out of town, call 888-298-5569. Listen to us on the web: www.1150kknw.com Upcoming topics and guests:
 Media Violence as Attitude Formation by Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO “I’ll finish
her off by ripping out her heart.” Is this a conversation between two psychopaths? No. This exchange took place between two sixth grade boys as they played a video game. Words, ideas, and images of brutality not ever imagined to be “entertainment” ten years ago currently fill up much of our kids’ leisure time. And their conversations reflect the increasing escalation of the levels of violence portrayed. As our youngsters lounge on their beds watching violent cartoons, take in the latest horror flicks at movie theaters, and sit in front of video game consoles playing popular violent video games, they are either talking to themselves or talking to one another. Their inner dialogues and friendly conversations help form specific attitudes that affect not only their present choices, but also the choices they will make as future citizens and parents. Attitude formation has both cognitive and affective components. An attitude can take time to form and be a conscious, intentional deliberation through a slow thinking process, such as a jury verdict. Or an attitude can be formed over time, catalyzed unconsciously by emotional reactions, rather than by thoughtful analysis. This is what is happening with violent entertainment. The self-reinforcing nature of attitudes formed while young means that once a media violence habit is started, it becomes difficult to break. From these anti-social attitudes come perspectives by which the child or teen processes new information and makes decisions about future behaviors. Human brains work to form what is known from what was known. Past experience forms a cognitive structure about the way things should be. From that place we navigate the world, deciding how everything in it “fits” with pre-conceived notions. A continual immersion in violent entertainment, then, displaces healthy messages of cooperation, negotiation, and the sacredness of life, setting up anti-life attitudes as the standard, or “norm,” upon which decisions are based. Permeating every aspect of children’s lives, attitudes gleaned from sensational screen violence can lead to depression, anxiety, fears, and numerous mental health problems. As our children’s minds and hearts are filled with media violence in most of their leisure moments, they can even develop cognitive scripts that mimic psychopathic language. Taking pleasure in violent entertainment, they talk to themselves and to each other as if they were cold-blooded murderers. Read Research on Violent Video Games Read Research on Media Violence and Youth
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The PCI is delighted to announce that Northwest Parent Media is joining us to promote and further develop Parent Appreciation Radio. Northwest Parent Media publishes Seattle’s Child, Puget Sound Parent, Sound Baby, and NW Educator. Under new ownership, Northwest Parent Media is dedicated to delivery of parent educational resources through all forms of media. Parent Appreciation Radio was a natural fit. Another exciting partnership with Northwest Parent Media! Seattle’s Child and Puget Sound Parent now include Gloria’s syndicated column, Your Parenting Coach. This is an interactive column. Parents can email their questions to gloria@thepci.com or to nweditor@seattleschild.com. The PCI completed a very successful Parent Coaching Pilot Project, conducted in collaboration with Snohomish County Office of Children’s Affairs. Fifteen of our parent coaches in training from all across the country took part. The moms and dads coached were very grateful for our assistance. So many commented on the graciousness of our coaches and how much they learned about themselves and their children in this process. The research data will be compiled and shared with county agencies for expansion of the project so the PCI can reach more parents with our very effective coaching model! If your agency is interested in linking with the PCI to offer parent coaching services and to assess its effectives, call the PCI today, 425-401-1519. 
Meridian School is sponsoring Gloria DeGaetano’s popular presentation to parents, Parenting Well in a Media Age, on March 2, 6:30-8:30PM at the new theater at the The Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, WA. Parents will learn the most recent research, along with practical tools and techniques for supporting children’s optimal development. If you are going crazy with media’s impact on your kids, weary of always saying, “No” to them, and feeling isolated on the parenting journey in today’s screen saturated culture, come to this workshop to meet like-minded parents and to be inspired to continue your wise choices on behalf of your children. There is no fee for this event. If you are not a parent at Meridian, you would need to pre-register by contacting Joan Reynolds at Meridian School: 206-632-7154. To engage Gloria DeGaetano for a keynote or workshop, contact her at 425-401-1519 or 1-888-599-4447. Workshop, Appreciation in Action, Using Gratitude as a Catalyst for Positive Change, with interfaith minister Jamal Rahman, Friday, March 3, 8:30 a.m. to noon in Bellevue, Bellefield Office Park (directions provided after you register). Jamal will energize and excite you with his insights and understandings of the power of appreciation. A popular speaker, author, and nationally recognized leader, Jamal conveys the essence of core values for true success, optimal workplace performance and for staying peaceful and centered on our chosen path. Learn a vocabulary of hope to use with your colleagues, spouses, or children. Enjoy Jamal’s humor, wit, and dedication to making this world a better place by helping us to show up as our best selves. Jamal’s latest book, The Fragrance of Faith, will be available for purchase. Cost: $79.95 This is a popular workshop. Space Limited. Registrations accepted until February 15. Register by calling 425-401-1519.
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This issue of Parent Express was originally published February 7, 2006. Some content, contact information, and links may be out of date, and the conversion from the original email edition may introduce formatting inconsistencies.
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