Here is one mom's experience of a take stock session:

For me, I've been in a frame of mind where I am desperate for advice and help with my parenting attitude. I have felt for so long that I'm just a shell of the person I used to be, and have been so serious and grumpy with my kids for what seems forever. I have been struggling with the same problems, the same triggers, and the same explosive anger at my kids from what has felt like an uncontrollable and un-preventable 0-60 kind of a rush of anger, seemingly coming from nowhere. I've tried so many books, mama's book clubs, but haven't felt like I could ever actually find answers for MY problems.

When you offered a Take Stock session with me, my initial feelings were of shyness and feeling out of my comfort zone as I am an introvert. However, I'd just finished watching the daily Pause Button Challenge and felt like everything you said in those videos was like throwing out a lifeline to me. As if you were right there, validating my feelings and giving me huge relief in your reassurance that this is so common and normal and the problems aren't ME. I really needed to hear that. And you were so honest with your own struggles in parenting that I felt less ashamed to share my struggles with you. It felt scary waiting for my appointment time but the instant you called you were warm, businesslike, with no awkward smiling silences, but warm smiling welcomes! You got straight into a conversation with me as if we were already picking up from a past conversation, as you already knew so much about me from the form I filled out which took away the "new meeting" anxiety for me. It was such a validating and healing conversation. The biggest thing for me was that it truly made me step back and look at my whole big picture of what my struggles in parenting have not only done to me now, but what my life and my family and relationships will look like in the years to come. I have spent so much time worrying about how my kids will turn out that I never once stopped to reflect on what I will look like, and how much I will either wither or grow and flourish. I  have never had the opportunity to fully reflect like that, and with the guidance of your questions I felt like I could step back and have so much compassion on myself, my husband, and my children. It was such a gift of time and space to truly see what currently feels like I'm drowning, to realize it doesn't have to be that way and that I can change things, and with help I can learn exactly what to do. What a feeling of relief! And I have to see, just since having this conversation with Jacqueline I have been able to enjoy my children more, to feel more curious about their behavior and to feel more accepting of the phase that we are in. (Plus my husband and I instantly starting using the phrase "Next Time' and have been able to use it SO OFTEN since then, which kept us in a calm place rather than growing in annoyance! Hooray!)

So thank you Jacqueline, so much, for being such a compassionate listener as well as truly understanding the hearts and plights of us struggling, lonely mamas who have really felt like there is no one to turn to for help!

Kimberly :)