Our Why From Our Founder

My belief is that families fail when we don’t cherish…

When our son was born, he was colicky. We received all kinds of “helpful” advice that was not helpful at all.  This caused us to do a lot of reading so that my husband and I could find our way through the colic in a manner that supported our son and showed compassion for all of us.  We read many differing perspectives and it was difficult to wade through so many viewpoints. We eventually found our way through not only the colic but also several other parenting questions.

People are naturally good…behavior often isn’t.

I would say that my biggest “aha” moment came when I realized that we, as people, are good and deserve to be cherished.  However, our behavior is often not respectful of others and therefore needs to be limited with clear boundaries set. Simply put, as people we are all good but sometimes our behavior is nasty!

What we finally realized was, in our family, we did better when we encouraged each person’s independence while at the same time, acting as one unit – one family.  Yes, we, (my husband, my son, my daughter and I), all had different skill levels and different amounts of emotional maturity and yet, when we honored each family member for who they are and the abilities they had, we could all cherish each other. 

This allowed us to be together and work together in a way that was elevating. It became obvious very quickly that cherishing each other without limiting inappropriate behavior was counterproductive. We found that when we created an environment that allowed each family member to bring their entire selves with them, while limiting inappropriate behavior, we all grew.

Once my husband and I were able to digest all of this, it lead me to want to share what we had learned with others. So I started creating courses, which led to Cherishing the Family. 

Cherishing the Family courses and resources give you everything you need to raise resourceful and independent children…resulting in a connected and happy family.

 ~ Sylvia

Cherishing the Family is practised and taught by Sylvia Saenger and Katie Risser. You can read their bios by following the links on their names.