Dear ones,

Endeavoring to raise healthy humans at this time is no small task.

Our families are not insulated from these pivotal times - many are feeling the tension of trying to stand steady while the sands are shifting beneath our feet. 

We are being called to raise our awareness to new levels, to see with Eagle eyes, and equip ourselves with the right tools to build the world we most want to live in.

The tools we used to get to this point are not the tools that we need to build the future our children deserve. 

Does any part of the following sound familiar to you?

• You are feeling the tension of these times showing itself in your family dynamics...

• You're feeling the heartbreak of not parenting on the same page as your partner and the yearning to do so...

• Your relationship with your children is good, but you know it could be great; deeper and more connected...

• You know this whole raising children journey is meant to be done in community and you would love to find yours...

• You recognize that this raising humans job you signed up for is the most important job you'll ever have...

• And you're feeling the call to hone your parenting practice to be more aligned with your values and your vision of what's possible in this world...

• You're ready for some new tools and deeper level of clarity in your tool-bag...

If this resonates, Family Foundations is your invitation to press an intentional pause long enough to gather the tools to continue the journey.  Together we will build a solid foundation to support your family relationships moving forward.

Regardless of where you’re at in your parenting journey, just beginning or already parenting teens,  Family Foundations will help you move forward with clarity, deeper connection, shared purpose and joy.

This kind of parenting works, in that emotionally intelligent, embodied, confident and empowered children emerge. 

What: An eight-week, live journey for parents ready to build their strongest family foundation and parent with more clarity, confidence and connection.

When: Class begins May 24th. 2020

Where: Class is held virtually via Zoom video classroom once a week for eight weeks with supporting material emailed weekly.  All classes are also recorded for later viewing.

Eagle Eye Intentions:

Zoom out, gain focused perspective, set clear intentions, identify your true north. There is no one size fits all parenting manual - together we map your aligned course forward; your true north.

Perspective - Paradigms of Parenting:

Shifting family dynamics can be long and arduous or swift and ease-full, let’s embrace the latter. We’ll take a look through a new lens, gain deeper understanding of the paradigms of parenting to begin wiring new relational patterns of connection and natural cooperation.

Insight - Raising Emotional Intelligence:

Hone the tools of understanding the inner landscape of self and loved ones so that you are able to meet them where they are and pave the path back to connection.  Cultivate greater emotional intelligence - one of the top predictors of a fulfilling life and one of the most essential, but wildly undervalued, human survival-skills.

Exploring your story:

It's been said that the further back in our story we are willing to go, the further we are able to move forward. We’re gathered in this course to move forward in a good way. We’ll excavate the gold that helps illuminate your parenting journey.

With clarity in our pocket, from the first half of our journey, we begin construction of our most solid family foundation.  The second half of our journey we learn the tools and practices that become the bedrock for all else.  These are the practices that will allow you to create strong, radically honest, trusting, values-based relationships. 

Family Connection Practices: 

The greater the level of connection, the greater the level of natural cooperation, and don't we all need that? This week we are sinking into some simple yet powerful practices to anchor daily points of connection into your family rhythm.

Family Conflict Resolution Process:

Conflict is growth trying to happen. When we begin to approach it that way, a whole new depth to our relationships can be found, even, and especially, through the inevitable tense moments in family life.  Learn to do conflict in a new way, and give your children tools so very needed at this time in history.

Family values exploration + setting meaningful limits:

Learn how to set meaningful limits that model how to live a values-aligned, conscious life. Create more dialogue in your family rather than silent pouting, raised voices, and slammed doors, or avoiding limit setting altogether in fear of all the above.

Declaration and celebrations: 

This last week of our time together we are wrapping the bundle on our journey in a good way, with reflection, gratitude and celebration so that we can continue to carry the insight and tools gained from this time together forward into our lives. 

This is where I could share a list of my credentials and accolades, certificates and accomplishments, the typical third-person bio that we’re all used to. Instead, I want to tell you the story that really matters, the story of my own becoming as a mother.

Giving birth to my firstborn son was a powerful rite of passage.  A mama-bear was also born that day, as was a commitment to finding a path consistent with my heart’s sense of possibility. I didn’t yet have the language for that possibility, but I began the quest, as we all do, with my mama-heart as my guide.

Like all journeys, mine had many bumps and trials along the way.  Sometimes it was downright messy, others, I doubted my ability to guide my sweet family as we weathered the many storms of life. Through it all, I was guided by my deepest desire: to not settle for anything less than a fantastic relationship with my children. I knew that this journey was too short and too precious to squander.

Even in my moments of doubt, I held tightly to a tenacious belief that more was possible, this belief was the fuel for my fire. Along the way, I found the teachers and tools I needed to get me where I knew I needed to go. It is these teachings and tools that I offer to you inside our year-long Sage Mothering journey.

13 years (and a whole lot of training, trial and error later) it is my sacred work to guide mothers like you who are not willing to settle for less. Mothers who know that more and deeper is possible, even in our sometimes messy, modern lives.

Together we do the work of cultivating YOUR  legacy of love, a legacy that will bring more joy and love to each moment in the here and now AND reach many generations into the future.

You are OPEN, strong, and tenacious in your belief in us, Mariah. I love that. It is like that saying that sometimes another believes for us when it seems the chrysalis is still too inflexible to release the butterfly. Not that you can do this for me. But your heart is so wide with love I can't help but make the leap into flight.

~ Shelley Triggs, LMFT

You will be joined by a dynamic and dedicated community of parents who are willing to do the work of shifting into a new paradigm of parenting, one that is about being in relationship-with their children rather than attempting to have control-over them.  The lovely humans who embark on this journey are open and willing, often they've already been on a parenting journey for some time, seeking a way of doing family that is different from what they know but their heart knows is possible.  These are the folks who are actively working to create the world they most want to live in and they know it starts with them, at home.

• mothers and fathers who are committed to living the most joyful and connected relationship with their children

• who might be feeling the pain of seemingly not being on the "same page"

• who desire a way of parenting that is not about controlling their children

• who are open and willing to deepen their parenting practice

• who are committed to mending the past, cultivating the future and parenting consciously right now!

• a collection of folks who are both brave and supportive.

Maybe a short little story about where this journey is not taking you would be helpful.  I was sitting in my favorite little coffee shop working the other day when a woman sat down at the table behind me and proceeded to make a phone call.  The volume of her conversation quickly elevated as she began to recount the content of an unfolding episode between herself and her teenage son who was just transitioning to college.  I imagine she was talking to her sister or friend. It became harder and harder for me to keep my focus on work as the ongoing storytelling heated up and increased in passion.  My heart was simply breaking for this mama and her son, both so entangled in a toxic dynamic of disconnection and pain.  And before she was done she moved on to her younger teenage daughter and all that wasn't working there as well.  I'll spare you the details, and hopefully the lived experience of such a dynamic in your own home.

Together we will be building your solid family foundation that will help you grow through all the ages and stages of your relationship in a healthy, strong, trusting and respectful way.  This journey will lead to more clarity and understanding, conscious communication practices, shared values and a better understanding of one another.  This journey is the start of new generational patterns in your family. 

During this eight week journey together you will:

• Gain clarity about where you have been and where you really want to go in your family relationships - this is key to getting there.

• Understand the journey up to this point in a way that is helpful for moving forward.

• Learn new language to help you connect with your family in a meaningful way that builds trust.

• Begin new daily family connection practices that will help you deepen your relationship without adding more to your to-do list.

• Add some new tools to your tool bag for navigating conflict in a way that builds connection and understanding rather than eroding it.

• Get really clear on what your family values are and how they can inform the way you set limits and live your life in an aligned way.

• Create your family manifesto and declare who you are and what matters most.

• Begin to experience more ease, joy, connection in your life and home.

• Build confidence that you are parenting in a way that will help your children grow and thrive in this modern world.

• Begin to build the family foundation that will allow you to grow a healthy and strong future together.

• Learn how to build deeper understanding together so you can parent on the same page (if you choose to share this journey with your parenting partner)

• Cultivate your legacy of love.

What: An eight-week live journey for parents ready to build their strongest family foundation and parent with more clarity, confidence and connection.

When: Class begins May 24th. 2020

Where: Class is held virtually via Zoom video classroom once a week for eight weeks with supporting material emailed weekly.  All classes are also recorded for later viewing.

As a mother, a Waldorf teacher, and a practitioner of Yoga Philosophy, the teachings of Peaceful Parenting have brought together my desire to live a balanced connected life with those I love and those I care for. Mariah has given me the courage and tools to create a feeling of connection, respect and love within my family and within my classroom. 

~ Julie Hitchcock, MA, Child Development  

Mariah brings humor and understanding to her work. She shares her own experiences along the parenting journey, which helps to clarify difficult situations we share with our own children. She speaks with knowledge about what is happening with our children's emotional growth, and how best to address our children's needs, and connect with them again, so we can work cooperatively with them to resolve any difficulties. 

~Stefani Bolle, Kindergarten Teacher   

Mariah has brought a warmth of heart to our daily interactions with the children. It has been through this lens that we've come together as a unified faculty. Giving structure and form to our group process has given us a common language through which we can meet the children each day and each other. Having our faculty on the same page presents a unified school and has brought growth to our parent body, the children and ourselves. Thank you for this opportunity to help our school to grow outwardly and inwardly. 

~Kim Wishon, founder Wishing Well School