You’re invited to the forum
featuring Michelle Icard!
June 24, 2025 at Myers Park Baptist Church
Parents are raising their children under more scrutiny than any previous generation. Raising a family, once a personal and private endeavor, is now subject to a slew of expert opinions, algorithms, targeted advertising, community feedback, and peer judgment. While research and opinions can be helpful, and transparency can be cleansing, we can't deny the added stress they bring to the already tough job of raising kids. Earlier this year, the Surgeon General issued the first ever public health warning about the mounting crisis of stressed out parents.
Michelle Icard is a parenting author who has studied children, teens, parents and parenting trends for over twenty years. Her work is rooted in practical experience, a fascination with good research, and empathy for families who feel pressure to curate parenthood to fit the new "industry" of child rearing. Michelle has a background in education and curriculum development, has authored three best-selling parenting books, is a regular contributor to national news outlets, and travels the country to speak at schools and community organizations about raising tweens and teens.
Join us for an evening of cutting through the noise, confusion, and stress of modern parenting and leave understanding which parenting pressures are based on “myth” and which parenting practices actually give “meaning” to raising, happy, resilient kids and becoming a satisfied parent and person along the way.
Connect. Consider. Ignite. The program runs from 6:15 PM to 8:00 PM including time for conversation, connections, and Q&A.
The Forum has a three-part structure:
• First third: Participants connect and build relationships in small break-out groups prompted by a question;
• Middle third: Participants consider a presentation that ends with the speaker posing a community-facing question;
• Final third: Participants discuss the question, igniting new ideas and interactions.
THE HUMANITIES | Languages | Literature | History | Philosophy | Religion | And More!
Participate in the important questions of our time. The Forum is a conversation and speaker series that brings people together to explore challenges and opportunities that affect human flourishing through the lens of the humanities and civic imagination.
