Raising kids is the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Or so people say.
But what if every parent had a parenting coach in their corner to help them tackle challenges, overcome obstacles, and be better parents?
If you think you have the skills to become a parenting coach, you can start a business helping families learn and implement different parenting techniques and take steps to build happier, healthier connections with their children.
Here’s what you need to know about how to become a parenting coach – including tips on how to build your business from scratch and top examples from successful parenting coaches.
Follow along or skip ahead:
- How to become a parenting coach
- 7 top types of parenting coaches
- What is the difference between a life coach and a parent coach?
- What qualifications do you need to become a parenting coach?
- 3 steps to become a parenting coach
- 5 top parenting coach qualifications
- Gaining practical experience as a parenting coach
- 4 tips to help you build your parenting coach business
- 4 examples of successful parenting coaches
- Ready to learn how to become a parenting coach?
How to become a parenting coach
If you want to learn how to become a parenting coach, there are a few steps you need to take before you start practicing.
Here are the essentials of how to become a parenting coach:
- Get a parenting coach certification: To be an effective and successful parenting coach, it’s a good idea to obtain a parenting coach certification or qualification to help build trust with your audience and boost your confidence when approaching new clients.
- Choose a niche: If you’re looking to become a parenting coach, choose a niche or specialization to help you get clear on who you want to help and how you’re going to do it. A niche will also make it easier for you to find clients and market your business.
- Grow your network: Networking is a really effective way to build your reputation as a parenting coach and develop your personal brand. Grow your network by connecting with other parenting professionals, organizations, and relevant brands.
- Build your online presence: Being a parenting coach today means working on your online presence. That includes building a community on social media, growing your email list, and creating landing pages that convert leads into paying clients.
- Expand your business: To grow beyond your 1:1 coaching work, open up new revenue streams to expand your business and generate passive income, including online courses, masterclasses, workbooks, and more.
Now for the details – here’s an in-depth look at how to become a parenting coach, plus answers to your top parenting coach questions.
7 top types of parenting coaches
Within the parenting coach profession there are a range of different niches and parenting coach specializations to choose from. Part of learning how to become a parenting coach includes deciding what type of parenting coach you want to be and who exactly you can help.
Here are 7 examples of parenting coach niches you could explore:
- Divorce coaching: These parenting coaches specialize in helping families through divorce, with emphasis on helping parents process their feelings and communicate with their children.
- Stress coaching: Many parents struggle with stress – and this can impact how they parent their children. Parenting coaches who specialize in stress coaching can help parents find methods to cope with stress and regulate their emotions.
- Nutrition coaching: Some parenting coaches focus on helping parents make informed decisions about child nutrition, finding ways to improve children’s physical and mental health through diet.
- ADHD coaching: For parents of children with ADHD, parenting coaches who specialize in ADHD coaching can help with implementing specific learning techniques, finding ways to improve concentration, and more.
- Birth coaching: Parenting coaches might also choose to specialize in birth coaching, supporting parents before and directly after the birth of their child, including with sleep training, feeding, and finding balance.
- Communication coaching: While communication is a key part of all parenting coaching, communication coaching focuses on helping parents develop their communication skills in a range of different ways, including conflict-resolution and setting boundaries with their children.
- Co-parenting coaching: Families in co-parenting relationships can benefit from parenting coaches who specialize in helping co-parents navigate the many challenges of parenting.
The type of parenting coach specialization that’s right for you will depend on a variety of factors, including your previous experience, interests, and education. To help you choose, try talking to parenting coaches you admire to learn more about their work and their area of specialization.
What is the difference between a life coach and a parent coach?
The main difference between a parent coach and a life coach is that parenting coaches focus on parents specifically, with emphasis on setting boundaries, communication and applying a range of established parenting methods. Life coaches tend to be more holistic, focussing on mindset, including goal-setting, self-esteem, and building confidence.
A parenting coach focuses on helping parents discover, understand, and apply different parenting methods and models. For example, a parenting coach might help families with:
- Sleep coaching
- Potty training
- Resolving bullying
- Conflict resolution
- Co-parenting
Parenting coaches aim to provide information, support, and encouragement to parents to help them learn how to solve different challenges and foster closer connections with their children.
What qualifications do you need to become a parenting coach?
There are no formal requirements or education to become a parenting coach.
Unlike therapy or counseling, parenting coaching doesn’t require any form of education or training before you start practicing.
That being said, many parenting coaches have some form of education such as:
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field: It’s common for parenting coaches to have a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as education, social work, counseling, or psychology.
- Parenting coach certification: Many parenting coaches obtain a qualification or certification before they begin practicing as a parenting coach, either from an in-person or online course.
- Relevant work experience: Work experience in the field of parenting coaching is also a big plus if you want to become a parent coach, including volunteer or paid experience in public or private coaching organizations.
You can start a business parenting coaching tomorrow – but if you want to be a confident and reliable parent coach to your clients, it’s beneficial to obtain a certification from an established parenting coach certification program and some relevant experience too.
3 steps to become a parenting coach
Here are 3 tips to help you learn how to become a parenting coach and get a parenting coach certification, even with no prior experience.
Choose your specialization
When you’re looking at how to become a parenting coach, it can be hard to tell what type of qualification or certification program is going to be right for you.
The truth is, there are a huge range of different parenting coach niches – and the parenting coach qualifications that are going to be right for some people might not be right for you.
To help give your search more focus, start by getting clear on what you want to specialize in. For example, if you know you want to be a nutrition parenting coach, then choose a coaching certification program that has a nutrition focus.
If you’re not sure how to find your niche, try writing a list of the following things:
- Your passions and interests
- Your previous experience
- Your skills, strengths, and education
- How you can uniquely help parents
Think about the parenting topics that you’re most interested in – and that you’re often asked for advice on by other people. If you find yourself talking to your friends and family about the same topics and problems, that’s a sign it could be a good niche or specialization for you.
By actively writing down what you’re good at and where you have the most experience, you can get clear on what route you want to go down with your parenting coach business and work to build a business that’s tailored to your unique strengths and abilities.
Compare parenting coach programs
When you know what area of parenting coaching you want to specialize in, you can start to compare and evaluate different parenting coach certification programs to choose the qualification that’s best for you.
Here are some things to bear in mind during your research:
- The experience of the program instructors
- Program accreditations
- Course delivery methods e.g. in-person, online, or self-taught
- Student support and supervision
- Course duration
- The certifications and qualifications you’ll receive
- Cost to obtain certification
The program that’s best for you will depend on the curriculum, flexibility, and course delivery methods you’re looking for. If in doubt, get in touch with the program organizer to find out exactly what you’ll get for your money.
Complete the certification
When you’ve chosen the parenting coach certification you want to take, set aside time to do the course, complete the assessments and get your certification.
You can use your qualifications as marketing material on your website, social media, and email footer to give your coaching business more credibility and a competitive edge. If you have a formal accreditation, you may also have the chance to join a parenting coach association or organization to help you find clients and professional connections.
Remember, you don’t need to get a parenting coach certification or qualification before you start coaching – it’s completely up to you what route you choose to take.
5 top parenting coach qualifications
| Qualification | Coaching institute | Certification requirements | Program length | Cost |
| Parent Coach Certification Training Program | Parent coaching institute (PCI) |
| 12 months | $5,800 |
| Parenting Coach Certification | Jai Institute for Parenting |
| 7 months | $4500 |
| Conscious Parenting Method Certification | Conscious Parenting Institute |
| 5 months | $8500 |
| Parenting Coach Certification | Mindful Kids |
| 12 weeks | €2,840 (approx $3030) |
| Parenting Coach Certification | Anu Family Services |
| 8 months | $3500 |
Gaining practical experience as a parenting coach
As well as getting a qualification or certification as a parenting coach, it’s also helpful to gain practical experience as a parenting coach before you start working with paying clients.
There are a range of ways to gain practical experience – here are a few ideas:
- Find a practical certification: Some parenting coach certifications offer practical experience as part of the qualification, giving you the chance to gain hands-on experience before you start your own parenting coach business. This can be really beneficial, especially if you have no prior experience in coaching, counseling or a related field.
- Work with friends: If you’re just starting out as a parenting coach, your very first clients will probably be family and friends. Be clear about your level of experience and the fact that you’re looking to practice coaching with them, so they know what they’re getting into before you start.
- Volunteer for an organization: Volunteering is also an effective way to gain practical experience as a parenting coach before working with paying clients. The right organization may also be able to give you advice and training on-the-job, so you can learn valuable experience as you go.
4 tips to help you build your parenting coach business
Getting education and experience as a parenting coach is just the start, if you want to learn how to become a parenting coach, you also need to know how to build your business and sell your services. Here are 4 tips to help.
Find your target audience
The first step to building a successful business is to know who your target audience is.
You might be tempted to think “my target audience is parents, obviously”. And you’re not wrong. But if you want to build a thriving brand, you need to get clear on exactly which parents you want to work with and how you can help them.
For a simple example, let’s say you’re specializing as a sleep training parenting coach. In that case, you’ll want to target new and expectant parents rather than parents of teenagers, as they’re the people who are going to need and want your services.
To help you find your target audience, ask yourself these questions:
- Who is my ideal client?
- What problems are they struggling with?
- What are their main needs and desires?
- What are their demographics? E.g. age range, location, income level
- What are their attitudes and values?
- What solution are they looking for?
Check out our full guide here for more help: How To Define Your Target Audience (+Templates & Workbooks)
Choose a business model
Building your business as a parenting coach also includes choosing how you’ll sell your services to your clients – including the type of business model you want to use.
Most parenting coaches start out offering private 1:1 coaching sessions to their clients. For example, a parenting coach might charge a fixed fee for a 60-minute online coaching session with parents.
But while this is an easy way to start your parenting coaching business, it’s not the only way to make money as a parenting coach. It’s also not the most cost effective. Why? Because when you’re working 1:1 with clients there’s a limit to the number of parents you can help and the amount of money you can earn from coaching.
Here are 3 other business models to consider instead:
- Memberships: If you want to generate recurring revenue for your business, you could opt for a membership model where clients pay a monthly fee to be part of your membership program and access exclusive resources, advice, a community, and more. Learn more about memberships here.
- Group coaching: Many parents are struggling with the same problems – so group coaching can also be a hugely beneficial method for parenting coaching, giving you the chance to help more parents and introduce a social element to your coaching services too.
- Digital products: To generate passive income from your parenting coaching expertise, create digital products like an online course or ebooks. This is a hugely scalable business model – there’s no cap to the number of people you can sell to and who could benefit from your expertise.
There’s no right or wrong way to offer your services as a parenting coach – and you always have the option to add in additional services or products as you go. For example, when you’ve built your reputation as a parenting coach, you could add a membership product to open up a new income stream for your business.
Related: Passive Income for Life Coaches: 5 Ways to Make Money Online
Build your network as a coach
Starting a parenting coach business is a lot easier if you can build your network of contacts. Many parenting coach businesses run off of word-of-mouth marketing and referrals – but there are tons of methods you can use to increase your brand awareness and reach your target audience.
Here are a few methods to try:
Network with parenting professionals
Get to know other professionals in your niche to grow your parent coaching business – including educators, counselors, trainers, industry experts, and more.
You can build your network both in person and online, including:
- Industry events
- Conferences
- Webinars
- Social media
Don’t be afraid to reach out and say hi – many people will be happy to connect with you, it’s just a matter of introducing yourself and starting a conversation.
Collaborate with relevant brands
If you’re coaching online, you can cast your net wider and focus on growing your network through collaborations with other brands. Not only does this give you access to a wide range of interesting people in your niche, it can also help you generate new leads for your business.
Here are some ideas for collaborations:
- Podcast guests: Find podcasts that are relevant to your niche and reach out to the hosts or producers to see if you could be a guest. Remember to demonstrate what you’ll bring to the table – including your expertise, experience, and interests.
- Guest blogs and articles: You can also look out for blogs and websites that share your target audience and offer to write a guest post for them to show off your authority and generate more awareness for your brand.
- Social media takeover: If you’re looking to grow your social media, suggest hosting a social media takeover with a relevant brand, influencer, or fellow parenting coach. This is a really fun way to expand your network and win more followers in the process.
Learn more in our full guide: How to Do Brand Partnerships (Strategy + Outreach Template + Tips)
Draw on your existing network
Don’t underestimate the power of your existing connections and past clients to level up your business – keep in touch and maintain those relationships to generate more leads down the line.
When you’ve built a client base, you can ask for reviews and testimonials to use as social proof across your website and social media to help build trust with prospective clients – if they can hear about the successes of your previous clients, they’re more likely to want to use your services themselves.
Related: Social Proof: 10 Examples & Tips To Use Credibility In Marketing
Get clear on your mission
The secret to marketing your brand – whether you’re an individual or a global organization – is to be clear on your brand mission.
Your brand mission communicates your purpose, objectives, and what you hope to achieve as a parenting coach.
- What do you want to help parents with?
- Why are you doing the work you’re doing?
- What are your aspirations?
If you can have a clear message and set of values or motivations, you can speak directly to your target audience online. Whatever you do, you can always come back to this core message in your marketing.
Here’s an example:
Crystal Haitsma’s parenting coach business is built on the simple message of “Helping you parent calm, confident kids that you love to be around”.
4 examples of successful parenting coaches
Ready to be inspired on your journey to become a parenting coach? Check out these 4 examples from online parenting coaches who built their businesses from scratch.
Clinical psychologist Dr Becky Kennedy built a parent coaching business selling digital products, including a best-selling book, podcast, and online courses. Her brand Good Inside offers membership subscriptions to parents with a range of parenting workshops and courses on everything from potty training to conquering problem behaviors.
After 20 years coaching parents, psychotherapist and parent coach Michelle Gambs wrote a book ‘Stay Away from Option D’ to help parents give themselves permission to not be perfect. She then turned her expertise into a podcast, YouTube channel and 4-week course for parents. Her philosophy? “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”
The Parent Hope Project is a social enterprise built for parents with the aim of helping them build confidence and reclaim their own self-awareness to better support their children’s mental health and wellbeing. Built by Dr Jenny Brown, the Parent Hope Project offers online coaching for parents, as well as professional training courses for people looking to learn how to become a parent coach themselves.
Author and coach Rhonda Victoor teaches parents how to be conscious, mindful parents while continuing their growth as individuals, including lessons on how to cultivate curiosity, how to deal with advice from other people, and how to cultivate presence as a parent. She also works as a professional speaker and leadership and communication coach.
Related: 10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course
Ready to learn how to become a parenting coach?
It’s now easier than ever to learn how to become a parenting coach and start your own parenting coach business. From online coaching to digital products and memberships, there’s a whole range of ways you can make money from your expertise and help more parents.
When you’re ready to start, try Thinkific for free and see what you can do.
Related: How to get 10 New Coaching Clients in the Next 90 Days