"I believe our children come through us, not for us, except for the lessons that they reflect to us during their journey, and an effort to grow us up along the way." 

Kim Muench, Jai Certified Parent Coach and founder of Real Life Parenting Guide, started her journey towards parent coaching and peaceful parenting all with just one phone call.

In 2008, Kim had her “parenting wake up call,” when her 28-year-old son called her for help with his substance addiction. For the next two years, it was Kim’s mission to navigate supporting her son through his recovery in the best way she could as a mother.

When her son went into treatment, Kim decided that she wanted to become a licensed chemical dependency counselor to help other teenagers. However, while in her internship, Kim realized quickly that helping teenagers struggling with addiction wasn't her calling—but helping their parents was. Along with these realizations, Kim came across an ad for the Jai Institute on Facebook, and without even knowing what parent coaching was, Kim felt pulled to join the Jai Parenting Coach Certification Program.

Kim says, “I really didn't know anything about parent coaching, but I did know that I wanted to help parents  proactively. I wanted to help them before there was a crisis situation.”

Having gone through and graduated from the Jai Parenting Coach Certification Program in 2016, Kim felt equipped and clear on how she wanted to help parents through her coaching and went on to create her parent coaching business, Real Life Parenting Guide. Kim’s intention for her work is to help parents stop white-knuckling through the adolescent years in parenting and to embrace their children for who they are, not who they need them to be. 

“I truly believe that we have to evolve from a place of parenting "over" our children, to "with" our children. Especially as they go through adolescence, to be able to give them choices, but also have some structure of non-negotiables in place.”

Kim is a strong believer that it is never too late to create connection with a child, even if they’re in middle school, high school, or young adult years. It is her passion to guide parents through the tough times of these years and move into co-creating a strong connection and parent-child bond.

"I truly believe that our children are our greatest teachers, and we have the opportunity to grow ourselves up through parenting.”

Kim’s personal transformations

In her own family, Kim has seen large transformations in the way she and her children communicate and connect with each other.

“My youngest two at this point, the only two that are at home, are almost 16 and 18 years of age. And I have to say, I have become more conscious. They've been with me the longest as I practice this, and I will say that their understanding of what I do, and our relationship is not like what you would think the typical parent-child relationship would be at 16 and 18. It doesn't mean that we don't have our struggles, but I'm very clear and understand when I'm being triggered. I know how to work through that, as a direct result of the work that I've done through Jai.”

“[Before Jai] I knew it was important for me to talk to my child. I knew it was important to recognize their feelings, but what I didn't realize was the depth to which we are the emotional barometers for our children, for the first seven years of their lives at least. And how, the way we attune, the way we use our emotional language, the way we identify with our stress, gets put directly on to the way that our kids learn things. I just wish I had known sooner. But the reality is we only can go forward, right? There may be a point in looking at the way we parented in the past, if only to acknowledge and then move through, learn better and do better for our kids.”

Kim now works with families one on one in her parent coaching business, provides presentations for local schools, and is even working on writing her own book. Kim is fueled by her passion for this work and is immersed in a sense of purpose that drives her forward in her business success. The growth of her business has recently allowed her to quit her job and pursue parent coaching full-time.

You can find Kim on her website https://reallifeparentguide.com, as well as her Facebook @kimmuench.reallifeparentguide and Instagram @kimmuenchreallifeparentguide.

P.S. Kim is also the author of a brand new book, Becoming Me While Raising You: A Mother's Journey to Her Self… which is now the #1 New Release Best Seller in Parent & Child Relationships on Amazon!!! We are SO proud & excited for her. Jai coaches ROCK!!!

You can buy her book on Amazon.

Do you want to know more about how you can create positive transformation for families, one parent at a time? Visit this page to discover more about becoming a parent coach through our six-month Parenting Coach Certification Program.