Get Your Spouse or Partner to Share the Load! Parenting in Partnership

On-Demand Class · Parent Wellness

In this 10-video series, you’ll create a roadmap toward a balanced, attainable co-parenting plan customized to your family and lifestyle.

Class Description

As rewarding as team-parenting can be, it’s equally challenging to make it happen. Strong communication, compassion, mutual respect, and attunement to each other’s needs is key, but life can get in the way sometimes. (Think work pressures, kids’ needs...you know, life.) So it makes sense that co-parents sometimes struggle to work harmoniously. But the effort is worth it. Supportive co-parenting is important for your child’s healthy development, and it also makes parenting less frustrating and more joyful. Team-parenting takes ongoing effort, routine practice, and, sometimes, some third-party advice. In this program, we’ll teach you and your partner techniques that enable you to value individual beliefs, support one another, and rely on each other. We’ll discuss in detail effective communication methods built on mutual respect. You’ll learn how to successfully share the mental load that causes stress, burnout, and tension. With the tools we provide, you’ll create a roadmap toward a balanced, attainable co-parenting plan customized to your family and lifestyle. You’ll finish this program with a rekindled sense of joy for each other and for parenting…and, I promise, the skills for creating a stronger family unit for years to come. Explore all the topics covered in this program: ACKNOWLEDGING THE FACTS: Male-female equity in parenting, stereotypes, societal norms, and even biology INDIVIDUAL NEEDS: Get attuned to each other’s wants and points of view MINDSET: End internal/external conflict and cultivate more compassion MENTAL LOAD: Effectively replace stress, burnout, and resentment with shared responsibility COMMUNICATION: Implement best practices and methods essential for harmonious co-parenting and a relationship built on respect CONNECTION: Building a collective unit and working in date nights, sex, and regular reset moments OPTIMIZATION: Dividing and conquering, capitalizing on individual strengths and preferences, and simplifying to make space for free time SUCCESSFUL SYSTEMS: Create a balanced, attainable plan for your family using resources/tools to your advantage OUTSOURCING: Getting outside help

Class Materials

Please be sure to upload the Parenting in Partnership Manual that accompanies this class.

Sessions Overview

  1. Introduction: Let's dig into parenting in partnership!
  2. Why is This So Hard?: Why is parenting with a partner so hard? Why do moms carry the majority of the mental load and the household labor? Join us as we explore the roots of inequity and resentment in households.
  3. Is Equity Possible?: Is equity even possible with your partner? The answer to this question might surprise you.
  4. Communication: Learn all about how to communicate effectively in this session.
  5. Parenting in Partnership Mindset: It's important to have to right mindset as you set off to parent in partnership —one that avoids resentment and encourages a team approach. Here's what you need to know.
  6. Dividing and Conquering: Learn the strategies you need to implement to offload your mental load and household labor.
  7. Using Technology to Your Advantage: Thank goodness for amazing technological advances that make parenting in parternship so much easier! Learn all about them here.
  8. Parenting With Your Partner: We'll walk through what you need to know to work together with your partner as you parent your kids.
  9. Forming a Strong Relationship Foundation: If you want to parent in partnership, you have to work on your relationship. Here's how to do it!
  10. Conclusion: We send you on a path toward more equity, less resentment, and more teamwork in this final video.

Your Instructor

Whitney Casares

Whitney Casares, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a board-certified pediatrician, author, speaker, and full-time working mom. She’s a boots on the ground advocate for the success of women in the workplace and at home. Dr. Casares is a Stanford University-trained private practice pediatrician whose expertise spans the public health, direct patient care, and media worlds. Her first book, The New Baby Blueprint: Caring for You and Your Little One (American Academy of Pediatrics, March 2020), is quickly earning media attention and consumer applause. The first of it s kind to address the unique needs of modern women as they transition to motherhood, The New Baby Blueprint questions our assumptions about what moms and their babies re ally need in the first few months of life with a no-apologies, straight-talk approach. Her newest book with the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Working Mom Blueprint: Winning at Parenting without Losing Yourself (American Academy of Pediatrics, May 2021), gives practical, expert-rooted advice and support for modern working moms who are ready to level-up their motherhood experiences and find success in the workplace and at home. Her work focuses on moving modern moms from feeling conflicted to centered. Dr. Casares practices pediatrics in Portland, Oregon, where she and her husband Scott raise their two young daughters.

Degrees and Certifications

Dr. Casares holds a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from The University of California, Berkeley, and a Journalism degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is a Spokesperson with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

More Classes For You

Browse all online parenting classes