By Justin RouillonThursday 4 Jul 2019ParentingReading Time: 3 minutes
‘It’s really about taking those micro-moments of family life and turning them into opportunities to build resilience.’
That’s Brisbane mum, speaker, educator and author of ‘Everyday Resilience’ Michelle Mitchell, on the new series of radio spots commissioned by your 96five.
Michelle is well known around the country for her expertise not only in the parenting arena, but also in her understanding of the teenage psyche. She has authored a number of books on these topics, and her work has also been featured on The Today Show, Today Tonight, 10 News, as well as in The Courier Mail, The Age and The Daily Telegraph.
Speaking with 96five, Michelle said that she’s always had a passion to teach life skills education to young people.
“I started my career as a primary school teacher, and after four years I founded a charity called Youth Excel. We started off delivering small group programs for girls at risk of dropping out of education. Over the next twenty years we built it up to a private practice clinic with twelve staff and were servicing 120 families a week which was wonderful.”
Sharing Her Experience
With a wealth of information gained from working with young people and their families, Michelle is now focused on speaking and writing.
“All the experiences I had over the last twenty years, I just want to package up and hand deliver to families so they can use it in their homes.”
Michelle says that encouraging our kids as they grow up can be a relatively simple process – “it’s really just one caring adult that holds kids to high expectations. Believe in your kids and back their dreams. Set an expectation that they need to push themselves to reach those dreams.”
Stay Connected
The other thing that Michelle is passionate about is helping parents stay connected to their kids.
“I often say that parenting is difficult when you’re doing a really good job of it. It’s hard work, and it’s not just about spending time with them, but finding ways of keeping those heart to heart connections as they grow through the seasons of their life.”
“They’re always changing, and we have to keep changing with them.”
We’re so thrilled to be welcoming Michelle Mitchell back to the 96five fold, with content that will help parents keep that connection, but also building resilience in their kids.
“It’s so important to build resilience. The big things that kids face is their friendships, the academic pressure at school and also the self-doubt that comes with growing up. We need to help kids keep that strong growth mindset so that they can fail and get back up again in life, and go for the things that bring them joy.”
Michelle’s latest book is Everyday Resilience and you can hear her daily on 96five sharing wisdom for your parenting journey.