Summary:

UNICEF estimates that 275 million children live with violence against their mothers. Consequences for children are now well documented. A topic drawing less attention is how being a victim of domestic violence may affect a women as a mother. Parenting Tips for Mothers who Survived Woman Abuse is a research-informed parenting support system for children exposed to domestic violence embedded in a comprehensive, multi-faceted and accessible training initiative for helpers. Helping women as mothers is among the best ways to help children. However, most parenting courses and books are not appropriate for families where an abusive man was in the father role. An abusive man affects family dynamics in many harmful ways and his abuse and parenting style can compromise a womans efforts to be the best mother she could be.

Recognizing the unique dynamics of parenting in the presence of domestic violence, we developed material to help the helpers – broadly defined – support woman abuse survivors as mothers. Working backwards from an understanding of how children are shaped by domestic violence, we crafted ten concrete and straightforward parenting tips. These tips are embedded in a package of background material on how woman abuse affects parenting and how to help women as mothers. In the "Helping Children Thrive" resource, service deliverers find 27 handouts they are encouraged to copy and distribute to women in a one-on-one or group intervention on woman abuse or on parenting. A number of corollary resource documents are available at no cost through the Internet.

A workbook for mothers of self-study exercises and homework assignments and a companion book appropriate for both mothers and their supporters is being written. It is called Making Tomorrow Better: Helpful and Hopeful Ways to Support Children as they Heal from Domestic Violence and Abuse. We are seeking a publisher. Many other future directions exist including the capacity for on-line training.