Parents Matter!

The Birds and Bees: Parents Matter!  is 6-week, 12-hour Virtual series for caretakers and guardians of children in early adolescence (9-12 years). Parents Matter! offers strategies and tools to strengthen and maintain the parent-child relationship while discussing puberty, decision making, and reducing risky behaviors as kids grow older.

Participants learn the truth about the pressures kids face, get practice answering tough questions, and gain tools to share their expectations and values with their child. Caregivers meet others dealing with the same issues and learn to address new and emerging issues in adolescent health.

For late elementary and middle school children, this includes talking about friendships, bullying, peer pressure, social media and answering children’s tough questions honestly. The average age a child is exposed to explicit online sexual content is 10 years old. Parents Matter! addresses this modern parenting issue and barriers to communication that include a lack of information, discomfort or embarrassment, and the desire for greater confidence and skills when discussing sexual matters. Parents Matter! focuses on parenting skills of parental monitoring, positive reinforcement, and parent-child communication.

It works! Parents Matter! is an evidenced-based curriculum informed by numerous studies and research that consider the complex process parents use to navigate, guide, nurture, and protect their children from early to late adolescence. Currently a program of the Centers for Disease Control, Parents Matter! is community-level family prevention program designed to enhance protective parenting practices while promoting parent-child discussions about sexuality and sexual risk reduction.

For more information,
please contact:

Shelbie English
Adolescent Parenting Coordinator
(828) 698-0674 Ext. 155
[email protected]