Learning to cope with separation during the holiday. Renew Supervision offers a tailored way to meet the needs of families

BY SYDNEE WALCOTT

The holiday season is known for being the most wonderful time of the year for many people. But unfortunately, this will not be the case for some.

The focus is beginning to shift onto the Christmas season. Everyone is gearing up and saving up to buy presents for loved ones (Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales), and looking forward to enjoying a big dinners filled with turkey and ham to share with loved ones and friends. Unfortunately, others will have to navigate through difficult times during this period.

For some, the holiday season can be a tough time to get through. These reasons can include: not having enough funds to afford both presents and Christmas dinner, not having the funds for either one, or not being able to spend the holidays with both parents.

It is always a difficult time for children and their parents when a divorce is taking place no matter when it happens, but it can be a lot more challenging when this new and challenging transition takes place around the holiday season.

However, just because a family might be going through a separation during the holiday season, it doesn’t mean they can’t have fun during the holiday season.

Renew Supervision, a Black-owned organization, is there to help and support parents and their families as they are going through a new and difficult change in their life. They offer services such as: reunification therapy, counselling services, anger management, and parenting courses.

Techenia Archer, Early Childhood Educator, and Renew Supervision’s lead parenting course facilitator and Service Support Coordinator said the organization is mostly known for its supervision of parenting time and exchanges.

Therapeutic services, such as counselling, and parenting courses, which Archer facilitates, are also Renew Supervision’s most popular services. Archer describes the parenting course as a more tailored way to meet the needs of the parents and the child, and to help give parents a refresher.

“I think it’s just important to keep the goal in mind that you are going to get a chance to spend time with your child,” said Archer. “The most important thing that matters is the quality of the time parents spend with their children.”

Archer also encourages the primary caregiver to look into giving the other parent the chance to be part of the holiday celebrations so their children can have the experience of spending the holidays with both parents. This can also help both parents come to a point in their co-parenting relationship, and help them form an agreement when: compromising, supporting, and putting their children in the forefront, and allowing their children’s voices to be heard.

Archer understands this transition can be nerve-racking for children at first and compares it to starting a new school. However, she encourages them to have a positive mind-set as they may get double the amount of gifts and still have a joyous holiday.

Renew Supervision started during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 and became an essential service when the government was not able to have their access visiting centres open for parents who required them.

Kezia Royer-Burkett, a Parenting Supervisor and Marketing and Public Relations for Renew Supervision, said the company is not like most traditional parenting supervisors.

They meet with families in the community and are there with them as parents enjoy activities such as: bike rides, family BBQs, and days in the park or at home with their children. “No parent really feels comfortable having a stranger watch them while they are spending time with their children whether it’s at their home or at the park,” said Royer-Burkett.

The parenting supervisor would be there to observe and take notes and will have those notes go to a judge.

The for-profit company works with parents and lawyers to help families reach the goal of having parents go from supervised visits to unsupervised visits.