A report on HES Extension programs serving Missouri's families & communities

Parenting fair links families with community resources

Having five daughters in eight years, Pat Licher has learned a thing or two about parenting. Still, the Montrose, Mo., mother could use a hand from time to time. "Parenting," she says, "is one of those things in life nobody's trained for."

For the past seven years, Licher has turned to Henry County's annual Parenting Fair for some "on-the-job training." The fair, organized by HES extension specialists, puts parents in touch with community resources and offers workshops on parenting skills - all for free.

The Parenting Fairs in Henry County draw big crowds annually.

"We look at the Parenting Fair as an opportunity to help make parents' jobs easier," says Lisa Wallace, human development and family specialist from Henry County.

The fair draws together a number of community agencies and institutions, from churches and counseling centers to schools and hospitals. Informational booths expose parents to area resources. The workshops with expert speakers help parents tackle tough topics, such as managing behavior or dealing with hyperactivity.

"We're all about getting information to the public," says Karen Bullock of the Golden Valley Hospital in Clinton "The fair helps us do that."

When the fair was in its infancy, the bulk of the information presented dealt with newborns and toddlers. "The highest peak of interest in a child's development is when a parent takes an infant home from the hospital," says Wallace.

Now the fair includes workshops geared toward the tumultuous adolescent years, with topics such as "teaching responsibility" and "coping with teen conflicts." "We find parents of older children are less likely to come out and look for help unless they're in a crisis stage," says Wallace. "That's why we began addressing routine teen problems in workshops. They help parents feel less isolated and realize they aren't the only ones whose children don't come home by curfew."

The fairs have been such a success, Wallace wrote a resource guide on how to coordinate a parenting fair. The guide has been used by extension specialists throughout Missouri and Kansas.

A family discusses good nutrition at one of the Parenting Fair booths.

One challenge to coordinating such fairs is figuring out how to lure people to the party. Wallace makes the event festive rather than academic. Games, giveaways and activities are fun for children, says Wallace. Free child care during the workshop sessions makes it easy for parents to attend. What's more, Wallace schedules the event in the dead of winter. "There's not much else going on that time of year," she says.

Wallace started the fair out of her own interest as a new parent. "When I first became a parent in 1988 I was interested in learning all I could about my newborn. As I read and talked with others, I realized there were few formal parenting education opportunities in my community. That's when I called a few area agency colleagues and bounced the idea of a parenting event around. They agreed to help and the event has been held in Clinton every year since," she says.