18 | JANUARY 26 • 2023
OUR COMMUNITY
A
new class offered by JFamily of
J-Detroit wants to help parents
of children who have ADHD or
anxiety navigate parenthood with effective
tools, skills and strategies.
“Parenting with Confidence: ADHD
and Anxiety” is a three-part program that
began Jan. 25. Additional classes take place
Feb. 1 and Feb. 8 as an online livestream
organized by JFamily. The class is led by
therapist Franki Bagdade, who specializes
in cognitive behavioral therapy for children,
teens and adults with ADHD, anxiety and
more.
Programming is based on and inspired
by Bagdade’s book, I Love My Kids, But
I Don’t Always Like Them, which was
released in 2021 and covers the trials and
tribulations of parenting, including self-
described “mom fails” and lessons learned
along the way.
The new workshop from JFamily is
designed for parents of kids who have
been previously diagnosed with ADHD or
anxiety, or seem to be displaying symptoms
of either. All registered families receive a
free copy of Bagdade’s book.
This class aims to fill a long-growing
void that JFamily staff members noticed
within the local Jewish community,
particularly in the online Jewish Moms of
Metro Detroit group on Facebook. JFamily
Parent Connector Jamie Kaniarz saw over
and over that moms across Metro Detroit
were posting for advice on parenting for
ADHD and anxiety.
“There were about 20 posts in a month
from different people,
” Kaniarz explains.
“People were saying, ‘My kid has ADHD,
and I’m not sure about this.
’ It was
becoming a very common
thread.
”
Seeing the need to support
this particular group of
parents and being the mother of
a 7-year-old daughter, Sammie, who has
been diagnosed with ADHD, Kaniarz
knew firsthand how important it was to
share skills and strategies for parenting
techniques that actually work. Often, many
parents simply just don’t know where to
turn.
“When you have so many people
dealing with the same or similar versions
of the same issue, it seemed like a really
great opportunity to offer support and
programming,
” Kaniarz says.
After grouping together with Stephanie
Erez, director of support and education at
JFamily, at the end of 2022, they decided
to bring forth a program that tackled the
pressing issue that so many moms across
Metro Detroit were dealing with.
“JFamily strives to meet the needs of
the Detroit Jewish community,
” Erez
says. “Jamie and I felt that as moms with
kids with ADHD and also from what
we saw was a serious uptick in requests
for youth mental health support around
ADHD and anxiety in various social
media groups, we created Parenting
with Confidence to offer
parents a place to learn
and, more importantly,
find community with other
parents going through
similar challenges.
”
BUILDING BLOCKS
FOR SUCCESS
Bagdade says the class covers
two main concepts that
she’ll demystify and shed
some light on, in addition to
understanding the particulars
of how brains with ADHD work. This is
so parents and kids are “speaking the same
language,
” she explains.
The first strategy, Bagdade says, is called
“right-sizing” your expectations. “This is
really knowing who your kid is, what their
amazing individual strengths are and where
they may have weaknesses or be behind
their peers,
” she describes.
This can help parents understand when
they need to jump in, accommodate or plan
differently — to be “proactive instead of
reactive when things don’t go well,
” she adds.
The next piece is collaborating with your
children. This includes, but isn’t limited to,
Confidence
with
Parent
New JFamily class helps parents
of children with ADHD or anxiety.
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Franki
Bagdade