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Parenting while Homeless
This section of the website contains information on understanding the impact of homelessness on children and families, techniques for helping parents support (and cope with) their children, and handouts that can be used in working with parents who are homeless.
|
Impact
of homelessness on children
|
The materials and approaches in this section are based on the premise that neither parents nor their children may be functioning as well while they are homeless as they have in the past and will in the future when things get better. Workers can provide parents with the understanding and techniques to assist the parent in helping her child or children to cope. |
Parenting under the best of circumstances can be trying at times. Add in the stress of being homeless, the parent's worrying about what will happen to her family in the future, and the adjustments that have to be made to parent while living with a lot of other people in a shelter or in a one-room motel room, and parenting becomes even more difficult.
Workers need first to respect the parent's role. Parents can be stressed out to the point that they are not responding well to their children and children may be out of control. It is easy through rules or actions to take over the role of a parent, and workers need to be mindful of this.
Both workers and parents need to understand the impact of homelessness on children. Parents can get so caught up in what they need to do to get out of a shelter that they can overlook the effects of losing a place to live and moving on children. The sections on communicating with children and stress and parenting can be useful to the parent.
There are a number of approaches in working with parents who are homeless that build on the strengths of the parent and aid her in supporting her children.
A constant issue for shelters is that of physical discipline. Shelters generally forbid the use of physical discipline and many parents rely on it. A discussion on the role and limitations of physical discipline, alternatives to physical discipline, and handouts are provided in this section.
Links to other websites with parenting information, especially on child-adolescent development and specific behavior problems, is also provided.
About Us 
Helping Clients Plan for the Future
Advocacy and Service Provision
Parenting while Homeless
Starting Points in Working with People who are Homeless
Perspectives
on Shelter Life from Residents and Staff
Sharing Expertise and Question
Future Plans for the Website
Related Links
Site Index
Contact Us
Home
Website Created by Tapan
Shah for Jim Winship and Social Work Department, UW-Whitewater. For comments:
Contact homewords@uww.edu All material
Copyright © 2000 by Tapan Shah and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
All rights reserved
Last Updated January 24, 2001