Services Offered
Click on the each title below to get more info about each service.
Infant Play Classes
Your baby is changed, fed, and had a good nap. You’ve got no errands to run, no social callings to answer. It’s just you and baby – so… Now what?
I’m sure many of you have been or will soon find yourselves in this scenario. Your infant is growing rapidly, faster than any time of their life. Yet we as parents find ourselves wondering what are we to do in this unstructured and open-ended time with our infant to best support this rapid physical and mental growth. You’ve probably heard that a baby’s work is play, but what does that look like? You’ve also probably wondered if your infant is stimulated enough or is their sleeping issue a by-product of overstimulation. And in this duo of baby and parent, what is your role during baby’s play?
At our play classes, we will guide you through:
– The stages of your infant’s physical and mental development
– How to support these stages through using developmentally appropriate play objects and environment
– Your role as the parent during play so that your infant feels connected, supported, and loved beyond the time spent playing
These are child-led, hands-on classes where a different parenting topic will be discussed each week. You will leave each class with practical solutions for typical struggles parents of infants face on a daily basis. As always, advice and tips are based on research-backed, respectful parenting practices and is supported by the latest practice in early childhood education and care.
Currently, we offer two levels of classes: infant pre-crawlers and infant crawlers / pre-walkers. We separate our classes not by age of the child but by ability as this is a significant physical milestone and play looks different for mobile and non-mobile children.
There are limited space for each set of classes. Please see calendar for next group of classes. If the class is full, it will be removed from the calendar. Please contact us at info@imperfectparent.ca if you have any questions or if you would like to register for the next classes.
New Parent Workshop
You’ve read the pregnancy books, stocked your nursery, wrote a birth plan, and gone to prenatal classes. If you’re like many new parents, you’re feeling prepared for the technical arrival of your baby… but perhaps a little bewildered and lost about the parenting side of having a child.
What are some of your parenting goals, philosophy, and plan of action? Are you and your co-parent on the same page? What kind of parent-child relationship do you want from the moment they arrive? How will that relationship endure a lifetime?
We tend to parent the way our mothers parented us. Even with the most caring and loving upbringing, it is fact that research and best practices in childhood development have evolved exponentially in the last 30 years. New parents often sought out information to situations as they come up but there is a vast world of knowledge, ideas, and philosophies out there to navigate!
Our New Parents Workshop aims to give you comprehensive and practical solutions to everyday new parent struggles. Influenced by respectful parenting approach and supported by the latest in early childhood education and care, the workshop will help you:
- Establish a core principle to your parenting that will help guide you on your parenting journey
- Think intentionally about your parenting and relationship goals
- Establish co-parenting strategies
- Acquire practical and research-backed advice to caring for a newborn
- Feel prepared and ease anxieties in the transition to parenthood
The workshop is designed for people who are:
- Interested in having a baby
- Expecting a baby
- Parents to infant or toddlers
Cost: $100 per couple
Duration: 2 hours
Light refreshments are provided.
Pre-crawling newborns are welcomed.
Limited space per workshop. Please see calendar for upcoming workshop dates. If workshop is full, it will be removed from the calendar.
Email info@imperfectparent.ca if you have any questions and to register.
Private Consultation
Do you feel isolated and lost when you are caring for your infant, unsure how to support their development? Do you find yourself in a constant power struggle with your toddler? Or perhaps you want to be yelling less but can’t seem to break out of the cycle?
As much as we at the Imperfect Parent try to provide guiding principals and practical advice that will apply to a wide variety of everyday parenting struggles, sometimes you just need the focused attention on real issues within your family.
How it works?
- You will be connected with the Imperfect Parent founder, Monica Chan, who will tailor a plan for your unique challenge.
- Through email, you will share with us in as much detail as possible the challenge that your family is currently facing. Sometimes this takes one email, and sometimes there might need to be a dialogue to get the full picture.
- We take the information gathered and work on finding a practical and comprehensive respectful parenting solutions to best address this challenge.
- We set up a time for a one-hour Skype meeting to share with you possible solutions to your challenge. The meeting is recorded and available to you for download and re-listen.
- Follow up summary of the action plan and documents (ie. Worksheets, charts, visuals) including a list of additional resources will be sent to you after our meeting.
- One week after our meeting, we will have a follow-up 15 minute Skype meeting to check-in on the progress. This isn’t typical of a private consultation, but at Imperfect Parent, we value the trust you put in us to help your family and we want you to feel supported on your parenting journey. If everything is working out – great! We will review your goals and move on. If adjustments need to be made, we will recommend some course-correcting strategies that will put you on a path for success. If needed, we can discuss further sessions during this time.
Cost: $200 per session and includes all the items above
Additional sessions cost $125 per session.
We have been asked about in-person meeting and observational sessions. We feel that often we get a lot accomplished through email and Skype, but can appreciate that for your piece of mind and thoroughness in understanding your unique struggle, we offer in-person consultations and observational session within the Metro Vancouver Area. If you would like to inquire about an in-person meeting or observational session, please contact us at info@imperfectparent.ca so we can discuss further.