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