Welcome to my Child & Me course. My name is Kelly Molloy I am from Belfast.  I have been a childcare professional for over 16 years.  I started my career in childcare as a childminder and then set up Wee Chicks in 2016.

During the last 16 years I have completed many professional and parental courses.  Starting off with my level three in Child development. My passion grew over the years around the development of the brain, managing challenging behaviour and how important positive mental health is for ourselves as   parents as well as our children in this hectic life.

I suffered with depression after a bereavement and during this time I found the love for exercise and mindfulness/positive mental health which really helped me through those hard times.   One day I thought wouldn’t it be great if this could help children too.  I got qualified as a fitness instructor and personal trainer which helped me work with both children and parents. It also gave me a lot of knowledge around health and nutrition which I found hard to understand at the start.

I then thought about introducing the positive metal health to the children as I know how much it benefited me.  That’s when I completed my mindfulness diploma and then from that developed a strategy where we could help our children develop mindfulness/positive mental health tools & techniques.

These activities help children to be more emotional aware. It gives them the tools to help them regulate their emotions when things get tough.

I find it really fascinating how the brain develops and how we are all very different.  There are some really simple tools and techniques that we as parents can introduce to our children to help and make our children more resilient happier and contented with in themselves.

To be honest I wish I had learned this information 10 years ago. As a parent because I would have understood my daughter more and things would have made more sense and our lives would have been so much easier.

I had a long battle with my daughter who nearly end up in care.  This nightmare went on for over several years. I was really struggling not knowing where to go to get help and support.  Constant shouting in the house, stressed to hilt.  I was exhausted not sleeping so worried about my daughter.  I felt helpless and a failure as a mum.  Worried about the effect it would have on my son.  Communication completely broke down when she was 12 and she HATED me.

By the time I got help it was nearly too late with the threat of Social Services putting my daughter into care for her own safety as she was at risk to herself.  She was such an angry child who was hurting so much and this was the only way she could communicate with me and her family. It broke my heart.  I felt Helpless as a mother.  She had developed mental health issues, no confidence low self-esteem, angry at the world and especially angry at me her Mother.

I can thankfully say I have now got the most wonderful well balanced funny daughter who has an amazing kind heart.  She has not had it easy growing up and has had several bereavements one including her father by the age of 9.  She was also bullied in school and found it hard in the first few years of secondary school.

I have developed this online course to give you more insight and more knowledge around brain development and stress triggers and signs to look out for so you can help if you feel that your child struggling.  There are activities for you to enjoy by yourself and also to do together as a family.

While going through this course I want you to be thinking about yourself and about the type of childhood that you have had and how has this impacted your life. I want you to also say out loud to yourself. Well done, I am amazing.  Now say it out loud Well done I am amazing I am doing my best.  I am doing my best. Take a big deep breath in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth.

Now let’s get started.