Family and Child Consultants

25/08/2026

🌿 FOR THE PARENT WHO THINKS THEY'RE GETTING IT ALL WRONG...

Maybe the house is a mess.

Maybe dinner came from a drive-through.

Maybe you lost your patience this morning.

Maybe your teenager barely spoke to you today.

Maybe everyone else's family looks like they have it together while yours feels like organised chaos.

Here's your reminder:

**Good parenting isn't measured by perfect days.**

It's measured in the repair after you've lost your patience.

The hug after the argument.

The apology when you got something wrong.

The hundredth bedtime story.

The lift you gave when you were exhausted.

The fact that tomorrow morning, you'll get up and try again.

Children don't need adults who never make mistakes.

They need adults who show them what we do **after** we make them.

So if today wasn't your finest parenting performance...

That's okay.

Tomorrow is another opportunity to connect.

And sometimes, **“I'm sorry. Can we start again?”** is one of the healthiest things a child can hear.

💙

23/08/2026

🧠 “THEY KNOW BETTER!”

We hear this a lot about children's behaviour.

And sometimes they absolutely do know better.

But here's the important bit:

**Knowing what to do and being able to do it when you're overwhelmed are two very different things.**

Most adults know we shouldn't shout when we're angry.

We know we shouldn't say things we'll regret.

We know we should remain calm under pressure.

And yet...

We've all had moments when our emotions got there before our sensible brain did. 😬

Children are still developing the skills adults sometimes struggle to use ourselves.

So boundaries matter. Consequences can matter. Children absolutely need guidance.

But they also need adults who can look beyond the behaviour and ask:

**“What happened here, and what skill does this child still need help developing?”**

Accountability and compassion can exist in the same conversation.

In fact, that's often where the best learning happens.

23/08/2026

Niki’s thought for the day….

21/08/2026

Community Announcement:
Consent is not determined by a persons occupation.
Just in case you were not aware.....

20/08/2026

🏋️‍♀️ I AM S**T AT CROSSFIT.

There. I said it. 😂

I'm slow. I don't lift heavy. I can't keep count of my reps, and it took me about six months to work out what AMRAP meant.

Yet five mornings a week, at the completely unreasonable hour of 5:30am**, I turn up.

And this week, three women in the back corner of my CrossFit gym reminded me of something that has absolutely nothing to do with exercise.

We aren't the strongest.

We aren't the fastest.

But we show up.

We encourage each other when someone is struggling. We celebrate each other's wins. We laugh, complain, push each other through—and nobody gets left behind simply because they're moving more slowly.

And on Tuesday morning, somewhere between trying to breathe and questioning all my life choices, I had a thought:

Imagine if women treated each other like this ALL the time.

Actually...

Imagine if the world did.

What if somebody else's success didn't threaten ours?

What if we challenged people without humiliating them?

What if we stopped comparing, judging and competing long enough to notice when somebody beside us was struggling?

This week's blog is a little different.

It's about CrossFit.

But it's really about women, kindness, leadership, resilience, friendship and the people who stand beside us while we carry the heavy stuff.

And I think it's one of my favourites.

❤️ *Sometimes we don't need somebody to carry the weight for us. We just need somebody beside us while we lift it.”

👉 Read the full blog here:

https://family-childconsult.blogspot.com/2026/08/what-three-women-in-back-corner-of.html

And when you've read it, I'd love you to do something:

Tag someone who belongs in YOUR back corner.

Someone who shows up, cheers you on and makes the heavy days a little easier.

Let them know they matter. ❤️

20/08/2026

🚀 **WE’RE OFFICIALLY A BOOST APPROVED SUPPLIER!**

We are very excited to announce that **Family and Child Consultants is now an approved supplier for BOOST programs.** 🎉

For us, this is about much more than being added to a supplier list.

It means another opportunity to take practical, engaging and meaningful programs directly to children and young people—and to work alongside schools to address some of the issues affecting them right now.

Our BOOST programs draw on what we see every day in our work with children, families, schools and communities. They are designed to build skills that young people can actually use, including:

💙 Emotional regulation and resilience
🤝 Healthy relationships and respectful communication
🧠 Confidence, wellbeing and coping strategies
📱 Cyber safety and responsible digital behaviour
🌱 Social skills, connection and belonging
🛡️ Personal safety, boundaries and help-seeking
💬 Managing conflict and difficult situations

We don't believe in standing in front of young people and talking *at* them.

Our programs are designed to get them involved—to talk, question, practise, problem-solve and connect what they're learning to situations they may actually encounter.

Because the goal isn't simply to deliver a program.

**The goal is for a young person to walk away with something they can use when life gets difficult.**

Becoming a BOOST approved supplier gives us another avenue to work with schools and communities to do exactly that, and we couldn't be more excited about what comes next.

If your school is looking at BOOST-funded programs and would like to know what **Family and Child Consultants** can offer, we'd love to have a conversation.

📩 Get in touch with our team to discuss programs for your students and school community.

We are ready to BOOST! 🚀💙

20/08/2026

🎤 WE HAVE SOME EXCITING NEWS!

We are incredibly proud to announce that Niki Gent, CEO of Family and Child Consultants, has been selected as a key speaker at the National SIL Summit on the Gold Coast this September.

And this is a big one.

Niki will be presenting in the Strategy & Leadership stream. For anyone who knows Niki, you'll know why this topic is so personal.

Her leadership story wasn't built through a perfectly mapped-out career or a conventional pathway. It was built through experience, determination, mistakes, getting back up, taking risks, backing people, navigating crises and learning that resilience isn't something you can simply put into a policy or PowerPoint presentation.

And she certainly didn't let lany of this determine where she would end up.

Today, Niki leads Family and Child Consultants, works with families and organisations across Australia, delivers training and consultancy, supports services through complex situations and continues to advocate for better outcomes for children, families and communities.

At the National SIL Summit, she'll be talking about what it actually takes to build resilient leaders, resilient teams and organisations capable of thriving when things get difficult.

Not just surviving the pressure.

Thriving through it.

We are enormously excited to see Niki take the stage alongside an outstanding national lineup of leaders, innovators and experts from across the disability and care sectors.

We suspect there might be a few stories to tell along the way. 😉❤️

Congratulations, Niki. We're incredibly proud.

📍 National SIL Summit
🌴 Gold Coast
📅 September 2026

20/08/2026

❤️ YOUR CHILD DOESN’T NEED YOU TO FIX EVERYTHING

Sometimes, when our children are upset, our instinct is to immediately make it better.

We offer solutions.

We tell them not to worry.

We explain why it isn't as bad as they think.

We try to fix it.

But sometimes children don't need a solution.

They need someone to sit beside them and say:

**“That sounds really hard. I'm here.”**

Being heard helps children learn that difficult feelings aren't something to fear or hide.

It teaches them that sadness passes.

That disappointment can be managed.

That anger can be expressed safely.

And, most importantly, that they don't have to face difficult emotions alone.

You won't always be able to fix what happens in your child's life.

But you can become the person they know they can come home to when life gets hard.

And that's an incredibly powerful thing to give a child.

17/08/2026

We’re excited to announce that Family and Child Consultants is now part of South Australia’s early childhood community through the Office for Early Childhood Development!

We look forward to contributing our experience, knowledge and passion to support children, families, educators and services—helping give every child the best possible start in life.

Learn more: https://www.earlychildhood.sa.gov.au/

17/08/2026

We are excited to say that Niki Gent will be a key speaker at https://allevents.in/surfers-paradise/national-sil-summit-2026-future-proofing-your-sil-business-gold-coast/100001991320062913 . Have you got your tickets?

Find tickets & information for National SIL Summit 2026: Future-Proofing Your SIL Business (GOLD COAST). happening at Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise, an IHG Hotel, Surfers Paradise, QL on Thu, 24 Sep, 2026 at 09:00 am. Register or Buy Tickets, Price information.