Parenting Courses Moved to the Online World…

by Ann Cunningham

Mothers Union Sydney – moving into the online world with our parenting courses

The worldwide pandemic of Covid-19 has produced so many changes in all aspects of our lives and Mothers Union Sydney was not exempt. In 2020, in relation to our parenting courses, we ground to a sudden halt and for many months didn’t feel we had the capacity to think outside the usual practice of face-to-face seminars. As we watched more and more events being adapted to the online world, we began to explore what a Zoom parenting course would look like.

One of the key foundational principles of our courses is the notion that we do not parent in isolation, and we need the support, encouragement and ideas of those around us as we raise our families. Indeed, God in his church has created the idea of a community where we do not function as isolated parts.

Our courses are designed to bring a group of parents, care givers, grandparents and those involved with children, together to share their collective wisdom, to learn together, to encourage one another and to hopefully continue to do that long after the parenting course has finished. A course run via computer screens with people potentially zooming in from anywhere in the world is less likely to create that encouragement and much less likely to have interaction post the seminar or course.

And yet, we have learned that there are advantages to a Zoom parenting course. We have found that we are more likely to get the fathers attending, there is less stress on the parents to be out the door to get to the course, there is less cost for the parents (no babysitter fee) and people who may not be able to access a course have more options to join.

To date we have run our single session seminars via Zoom and are planning to offer our four week Families Equip course online as well. The seminars have been requested by churches and so still have some of the potential for building a community for parenting post the seminar.

For the future, as we emerge from lockdown to a largely vaccinated world, we will retain the option of zoom courses. Our preference will always be face to face for all the obvious reasons. However, the option of Zoom is helpful and is needed.

We also can see that some people may choose Zoom for their group of parents so that both parents are more likely to attend and to expand the reach of the course.

Mothers Union Sydney is also planning to link our parenting seminars and courses with our Christian Parenting Australia Facebook group. We will advertise seminars regularly for this closed group and see how God uses this to support and equip parents.

God has blessed us with technology and ironically, we are more adept now at using this to support and equip families because of a pandemic. In God’s economy nothing is wasted, and he works in and through all situations for his will and purpose.