Welcome to Raise Your Joys! I am tickled pink to finally bring this dream to life. I have been teaching a wide variety of childbirth, parenting, and education classes for the past 18 years and now I am creating a place online where parents can come and we can learn together.

Raise Your Joys has three meanings:

1. Most of us can use more joy in our lives. One of the best ways to do that is by improving the relationships in our homes. As we learn and implement effective communication techniques that honor our children’s feelings and agency, our children will respond by being more pleasant to be around, more willing to try new things, and less likely to cause contention.

2. I believe parenting happens best when parents make an active decision to raise their children…their joys…instead of letting life happen and children are left to grow up without those conscious choices of parents. There are thousands of decisions to be made as parents and making those decisions, not just going with the flow of what others are doing is a beautiful approach to actually raising your children.

3. “Raise your joys and triumphs high!” is a line from the famous hymn, Christ The Lord is Risen Today by Charles Wesley. My daughter is named after Charles’ mother, Susannah Annesley, an excellent mother who taught her children in both academics and religion.