Deep in the throes of pandemic life, a Manhattan mother of two whom I'll call Amy was flailing in a way many Manhattan, and American, mothers were at that time. "It was during Covid that I realized I could not parent," she confesses. "I didn't really have rules. I was yelling a lot. I didn't know when to give in and when not to give in. I felt like I wasn't doing a good job."
Friends began sending her Instagram reels of parenting experts like the ubiquitous Dr. Becky Kennedy and other proponents of positive parenting (or gentle parenting or respectful parenting or whatever term your favorite expert applies to the popular style of child-rearing that promotes validating your kids' feelings, shunning the punishment/ reward tactics of yore, and remaining comically even-tempered through it all). Then came an email from her children's elite private school advertising a six-session virtual workshop with Rev. Susan Nason, aka the Parent Whisperer, titled "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk" Amy was quick to click. When the six weekly sessions were up, she signed on to continue regular sessions with Nason, who charges private clients $500 an hour to role-play their child's refusal to go to bed and to discuss topics like setting limits around screen time.
"I work 12-hour days," Nason says, noting that in addition to her current client load she fields texts in a given month from up to 40 former clients who reach out with problems they want to bounce off her. Nason's practice thrives through word of mouth and schools like Amy's that promote her course. "Everyone I meet presents pretty much the same way: 'There's conflict, I'm not doing a good job, give me that magic wand so I can be the best parent in the world.'"
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