Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Muench.
Hi Kim, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
As one of three kids growing up in an upper-middle-class suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my life changed a great deal in 1987 when I became pregnant at age eighteen. I was asked to move from our family home and had to learn how to navigate the welfare system, while becoming a single mother, inside of what eventually became an abusive relationship. After finally being able to extricate myself from my son’s father, as a young single mom, I was grateful to have the support and encouragement of my own mother. Fortunately, I found a full-time job and shifted into being the main provider for our little family. In 1992 I married my current husband and together we have four children. All the kids kept me busy yet I have loved every moment of being a mom to five kids!
In 2007 we moved to the Dallas area for my husband’s job. My eldest son stayed behind to start college and start his young adult life. In May 2008, he called me from across the country to say he’d lost the last 3 days of his life to an alcohol binge and needed help; this began many months of his spiral through active addiction until I was able to get him into inpatient treatment.
Parenting a young person through addiction has been one of my greatest challenges yet it also revealed my life calling to me. My son is now eleven years sober and thriving! I went back to college and then into certification for parent coaching so that I can help other moms of adolescents create happier, healthier, more functional homes. Using my personal experience to help others is very satisfying!
I have been building a parent coaching business since 2016. At the beginning of 2021, I quit my job to publish a memoir and coach full-time. I am blessed to say my book, Becoming Me While Raising You, became an Amazon #1 New Release in the Parent & Adult Child Relationship category. The book and the feedback I’ve gotten from readers (many of whom do not have children but have taken so much from my story) has been so inspiring and has affirmed my belief that the unconscious beliefs we take on in childhood need to be uncovered and questioned in our adult life so as to negate passing them onto the next generation.
Today my kids are ages 16-34 and I am past the intense “momming” years and I am excited to expand to the next chapter of helping and making a difference in other people’s lives.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Aside from teen pregnancy, parenting through addiction, being a mom to many different personalities, and going through financial setbacks both in 2009 and throughout the pandemic…lol, I believe I’ve earned a smoother road from here! Though the important thing is to find joy in the journey!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Real Life Parent Guide?
I am a Jai Institute for Parenting Certified Coach who specializes in working with moms of adolescents (kids 10 thru the mid-20s). I market myself to moms for two reasons: they were the ones most often coming for help and, as a mom myself, I know we are the emotional barometers in the family. When mom is working on her own emotional well-being it ripples out into everyone else in the family! The clients who come to me who have the courage to find solutions to their parent/child relationship challenges by looking within themselves find working with me to be a trusted place to find compassion and nonjudgment. We define their goals and work efficiently to shift the home to a more peace-filled environment for everyone. I work with parents one-on-one and in small groups (meaning 4-5 moms total). We cover topics like creating open communication at home, defining values and setting boundaries that stick, building trust, giving grace, and overall evolving the way we parent to one of WITH rather than over our children. I have an 8-week program I designed to cover all the most important topics related to raising adolescents today.
I also do a lot of podcast interviews on topics related to parenting adolescents and raising awareness that there is such a thing as parent coaching and there is no shame in needing assistance with the most important job you can ever have.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Being a conduit for the evolution of the way we raise future generations. We are the manual on which our grandchildren will be raised, therefore it’s important to have a self-care routine built into parenting! The rise in adolescent mental health issues is due in part to our kid’s desire to be seen and heard for who they are, not for who we want or need them to be.
Everything else in the world is changing, parenting must as well!
Pricing:
- $75/30 minute session
Contact Info:
- Email: reallifeparentguide@gmail.com
- Website: https://linktr.ee/kimmuench
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimmuenchreallifeparentguide/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimmuench.reallifeparentguide
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-h2K2Hk_pF521Dyurbee9A/videos
