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  • Home
  • DONATE
  • Programs
    • What's Happening now
    • Miss Kendra
    • Parents and Caregivers >
      • Family Support Services
      • Circle of Security Program
      • Lactation Support
      • Child/Parent Psychotherapy
      • Growing Great Kids
      • Watch Me Grow
      • VRoOm
    • Family Resource Guide
    • The Rocking Chair Project
    • Rural Outright
    • SHINE
    • The Center for Recovery Resources
  • About
    • About Us
    • Our Core Belief
    • Introduction Video
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Towns We Serve
    • Donations >
      • Benefits of Donating
      • Crafting for a Cause
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Professionals >
      • Client Referral
    • In the News
    • Publications
    • Outreach
    • Facility Use
    • Volunteers
  • Contact
    • Location and Directions
  • Blogs
    • Home with kids during Covid-19
    • Zero to Three Poster Additional Information
    • TLC News and Events
    • SHINE Blog
  • Online Resources
  • Tutor Support
  • Recovery Coaching
  • Recovery Peer Support
  • Recovery Contacts

"How do you manage?"

2/23/2018

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By Sarah Breisch

“I don’t know how you manage seven. I can barely keep up with two!” I hear this often from women I meet while shopping or walking or any other activity to which I’ve brought along a few of my kids. I feel obliged to tell them the actual number of kids I have when they see two or three with me and ‘helpfully’ tell me that I’ve got my hands full.

I would like you to know, gentle readers, what a mother of seven thinks when she hears someone tell her that they can’t understand how she can handle that many when one, two, or (gasp) three children seem like too much.

My thoughts run thus: Either she is an inept mother, or I am extraordinary one. Neither of these are true. We are both good mothers. She works just as hard raising her children as I do mine. The number of kids one has is ultimately irrelevant; having more or less does not make one more or less of a parent.

We both “succeed” at being good mothers when we attend to the needs of our children and raise them up to be wonderful people. No, my friend, I am not amazing because I have seven kids and am still functioning, nor are you somehow deficient because you have fewer and feel overwhelmed. We both do our best with our own circumstance, and that is what matters.

Of course I don’t articulate all of this in the produce section while my two-year-old is trying to eat all the grapes. I just shrug and say something like “Oh, I don’t manage.” So now this woman thinks I’m not only crazy, but possibly dangerous. Or hopefully she understands that I do not want to diminish her work as a parent by thinking too highly of my own.

As I have matured along with my children, however, there have been a few habits that have developed in my household that makes life with a large family possible. Over the next few weeks, I would like to share some of the strategies that have helped me get along with the crowd of wonderful, fascinating, and unique people whom I have helped to come into the world.

These topics will include:
  • Grocery shopping/ meal preparation
  • Clothing and laundry
  •  General cleaning and chores
  • Mental and emotional development
  • Toys
  • Using space well
  • Family time and personal time

​Everyone has a different set of circumstances that make their day-to-day living more or less of a challenge. Some of us rent, and we cannot control our living conditions to some extent. Some of us do not have the support of a partner who is invested in the care of their children. Some of our children may present with special needs or challenges of their own. I hope that these words will enable any parent to feel encouraged, inspired, or even just amused.

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Free glider rocking chairs for new moms

5/2/2016

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Research shows that holding, rocking, singing, feeding, gazing, kissing and other caregiving nurturing behaviors are crucial to the normal brain development of babies. Without early nurturing it is difficult for a child to become a healthy, happy, and productive person.

The Rocking Chair Project works with healthcare professional training programs and healthcare organizations. TLC Family Resource Center in Claremont was chosen as one of the partner sites. Pregnant moms who are enrolled in one the local home visiting programs provided by the family resource center may be eligible to receive a free chair.  Executive Director Maggie Monroe-Cassel explains: “Our parent educators visit the mom and new baby in the home and assemble the new chair together. After the donation, the parent educator continues to work with the new mom on parenting skills for up to three years.” 


Montana Hurd was the first local recipient of a free rocking chair. She helped build the chair with her parent educator Sandy Gassett. She did not have a rocking chair to soothe her new son who was a week old when she received the chair.


The Rocking Chair Project is a non-profit, 5O1C3 organization that was founded in 2001 by Trish Magee, an early childhood educator, and her husband, Mike Magee, a physician. That year, they purchased a glider rocking chair for their daughter-in-law, Susanna, a Family Medicine resident at Brown Medical School, who was expecting their first grandchild.
 Having raised four children of their own, they recognized the importance of having a comfortable rocking chair to sit in and nurture newborn babies.

For the parents and children, the gift of a rocking chair is a concrete expression that people care about them. Every new mother and baby, and especially those experiencing the pressures of poverty, needs time and space for nurturing. Giving a glider rocking chair to a mother will help her nurture her baby.


TLC Family Resource Center is one of 35 agencies across New Hampshire that are members of Family Support New Hampshire, a
coalition of non-profit family resource centers (FRC) and family support programs (FSP) that are designed to meet the needs of the communities they serve. Programs and services provided by FRC and FSP vary, but they all seek to strengthen families by promoting health, wellbeing, self-sufficiency, and positive parenting through support and education. TLC serves families in Sullivan County and Lower Grafton County. 

For more information on qualifying for a free rocking chairs, contact Rene’ Couitt, Intake Coordinator for TLC Family Resource Center, at 603-542-1848 x 302 or go to www.tlcfamilyrc.org.
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At TLC Family Resource Center we support and strengthen all families, children, and youth in Sullivan and Lower Grafton counties with a wide
​range of free programs, support groups, education, and events.


Media Contact: info@tlcfamilyrc.org

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1 Pleasant Street
PO Box 1098
Claremont, NH 03743
603-542-1848 | Fax: 603-542-1846
Center for Recovery: 603-287-7127

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