Parent Child Connection: From Shutdown to Safety | [Mini-Episode]

Oct 5, 2025

Laurie Shaffer, a seasoned parent coach and expert in trauma-informed parenting, shares insightful strategies for fostering connection with children. She highlights the importance of self-reflection for parents before addressing their child's behavior. With a poignant personal story about her granddaughter, Laurie demonstrates how prioritizing presence over correction can pave the way for meaningful change. Learn how love and understanding can transform challenging moments into opportunities for growth.

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INSIGHT

Grace Enables Effective Parenting

The Connected Families framework mirrors how Jesus engaged people with grace before change.
Receiving God's grace personally enables parents to pass compassionate correction to their children.

ADVICE

Regulate Yourself First

Pause and check your own emotions before correcting your child.
Regulate yourself first because children pick up unspoken emotional cues and will mirror resistance when you are tense.

ANECDOTE

Grandchild Meltown Turned Teaching Moment

Laurie described holding her three-year-old granddaughter through a meltdown instead of using timeout.
After patiently sitting and reassuring her granddaughter for nearly an hour, the child calmed and later used the taught request-for-help strategy.

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What do you do when your child resists eye contact when trying to engage in conversations about their behavior? In this mini-episode, Parent Coach Laurie Shaffer offers some suggestions for navigating parent child connection during these challenging encounters. She shares an honest moment she experienced with her 3-year-old granddaughter. In this episode, you’ll discover how she practiced connection and presence in the moment, ultimately empowering her granddaughter with helpful tools she could use next time.

Key Takeaways:

How deciding to be present can be more powerful than immediate correction
See a real-life example of how connection before correction helps to bring lasting change

Bring a Connected Families Workshop to Your Community

Ready to equip and encourage parents in your church, school, or community? Let’s connect! The team of trained presenters offers Connected Families workshops across the U.S. and internationally. Find out more here.

Guest Bio

With over 25 years in pastoral ministry alongside her husband, Laurie Shaffer has facilitated parenting classes and mentored moms through MOPS/MomCo groups. After raising three biological children, they began fostering and adopting. Connected Families became the answer to their prayers as they were now parenting children who had experienced trauma. Laurie is a Connected Families Workshop Speaker, based in Michigan.

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See all of our mini-episodes for this MARVEL-ous campaign on our October podcast page.

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