Starting in Chicago
Susan's love of children and fascination with families started at a young age. At age 10, Susan began babysitting for several local families. By age 18, she was a busy babysitter, camp counselor, and planning a career with children.

With her babysitting earnings paving the way, Susan attended Illinois State University, graduating with a teaching credential in Special Education. Her first teaching job, at age 21, was in a residential school, with a class of 8 troubled teenagers. She found that she liked teenagers just as much as she liked two year olds. (In fact, sometimes they acted alike!)

A move to California
In 1982, Susan moved to California, became a mom, and continued to work with children and families. While her own two children were small, Susan taught Gymboree classes, operated a home-based day care program, and attended a parent involvement preschool.

Susan then worked for six years at a Bay Area non-profit agency, where her varied duties allowed her to demonstrate her leadership skills and her knowledge and understanding of parents and children. While Director of Community Services, Susan taught parenting classes, managed the Speaker's Bureau, and ran both the parental stress hotline and a separate crisis hotline for children and teens. She also served on the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing team, providing support and structure in emergency situations.

Her parenting services today
Susan's many years of experience with children of all ages and their parents and her gift for understanding human nature have made Susan one of the nation's fastest rising parenting coach and public speaker. Her humor, her communication skills, and her confident voice contribute to Susan's professionalism.

While coaching parents on an individual basis, Susan addresses issues ranging from day-to-day challenges such as talking back, refusal to do chores, and struggles with homework to more complex issues such as sexuality, drugs, and bullying. [More about parent coaching]

In addition to coaching, Susan excels at public speaking, and has provided parenting presentations to over 300 parent and student groups. Her audiences include school groups aged K-12 as well as KICU-TV's "Q & A" with host Roy Avila. [More about public speaking]

At home today in the San Francisco Bay Area, Susan enjoys life with her 23 year old son Brandon and her 19-year-old daughter Casey. She also has an 18-year-old stepdaughter Roxie. "Parenting is the most wonderful and the most challenging job in the world," she says, still serving as the occasional babysitter after all these years.

Phone:  (408) 252-1089                                    Email: susan@susanstonebelton.com