The pressure to be a great mum causes a lot of us gals a bit of stress, particularly with this new trend in parent shaming across social media. One of the best ways to counter stress is improving your self-esteem and raising your self confidence, and there is no better way than arming yourself with some knowledge, skills and learning. We’ve compiled a list of online courses (all free) for mums who are feeling a bit ragged dealing with kids who don’t sleep or cry all the time. We’ve also concentrated on courses that face parenting challenges in mental health, autism, tantrums and development delays.

www.kidsmatter.edu.au

KidsMatter is an Australian mental health and well-being initiative in preschools, kindergartens, day care centres as well as primary schools. While their extensive website has a number of free courses, eBooks and video resources for educators it also has an extensive section for parents.

Supporting your children to develop resilience is a very important part of motherhood and their library of resources for parents begin with the basics of understanding mental health issues in early childhood. You can learn how to teach kids mindfulness as well as developing resilience. Other topics surround schooling issues like bullying, getting along with other children, learning difficulties and managing kids who refuse to go to school. The content on the website is useful not only for kids who are having mental health issues but also for teaching parents how to pro-actively guide their children into good mental health. For education courses with formal qualifications, check out https://www.courses.com.au/education.aspx.