Who we are

We are James and Amy Hughes, parents of 8 children ranging in age from 21 down to 11 months.  Married for nearly 15 years, we began our marriage with a 6 year old that was born to James and a biological mother when James was 15.  The biological mother left almost immediately, and when we were married, Amy became the only mom to James' 6 year old son.  We raised him in a very traditional, authoritarian way, and though it never felt right and never settled well in our souls, it's what we thought was supposed to be done, and so we did it. We also began raising our new children in the same manner. 

As time went on, we continued to feel more and more unsettled about what we were doing with our children and we noticed the fruit in them from how we were raising them.  Then we began to vocally question things.  We read, we researched, we discussed, we tested the waters, we made permanent changes, and we were amazed to see the difference in our children, our home, our marriage, our family.  There was peace, there was trust, there were hundreds of respectful conversations, there was understanding, grace, compassion.  We began to share our parenting philosophies with others who were curious, to guide those wanting to make similar changes in their family. 

We wholeheartedly believe that in order to bring change, peace, and kindness into this world, we need to bring change, peace, and kindness into our families by choosing peace, choosing kindness, when we parent our children.  We want to help guide others into bringing this new parenting paradigm into their lives on a larger scale than we have thus far, and so we have begun Choose Kindness Parenting.