You trained for your job and took lessons before your driving test. Parenting is the one role you teach yourself, and that is where the blind spot sits: we pass on what we absorbed in our own childhood without ever noticing. This program closes that gap: you spot your own patterns by watching recorded coaching sessions with other parents, and practise new responses at home, as a couple, around your normal week.
Please note: the first cohort runs in German. An English-language cohort is in the works. Join the waitlist at the top of this page.
What reaches the child
What we say is usually well meant. Still, what reaches the child is sometimes something else. These scenes play out every day in many families, whatever their background, which is exactly why nobody notices them.
The scraped knee that doesn’t need to become a big deal.
Parents say: ‘It’s not that bad.’
Child thinks: ‘There’s no room for my feelings here.’ In time they stop coming even when something really hurts.
What changes with The Parenting MBA
The pain gets named instead of brushed aside. The child often calms down faster because they feel understood, and it is exactly these moments that deepen the bond between you.
The toy they are fighting over.
Parents say: ‘Give it here, you have to share!’
Child thinks: ‘What is mine can be taken at any time.’ They cling tighter afterwards, because sharing is learned from safety, and that is what they just lost.
What changes with The Parenting MBA
The child keeps what is theirs and decides for themselves. Out of that safety they develop social skills like sharing, in their own time and of their own accord.
The crying that should finally stop.
Parents say: ‘That’s enough now.’
Child thinks: ‘Big feelings are something I swallow on my own.’ It does get quieter, yes, but they are shutting down rather than feeling better.
What changes with The Parenting MBA
The feeling is allowed, and the boundary still holds. Step by step your child learns to handle big feelings rather than swallowing them alone; the program gives this a week of its own.
The praise that is meant to make them proud.
Parents say: ‘Well done!’
Child thinks: ‘I am liked when I achieve something.’ The praise goes to the result, so they work for affection that was there all along.
What changes with The Parenting MBA
The praise goes to the effort, not the result. Over time the child dares more, because a fallen tower costs nothing, and their sense of worth no longer hangs on what they achieve.
Knowing the scenes and the theoretical answers is the easy part. Applying the craft in your own everyday life, in the loud moments and the quiet ones, is the part you have to practise.
Parenting is the most consequential task of our lives, and almost all of us take it on without any training.
Faculty
Family therapy, child and adolescent psychology, and systemic coaching: each of our coaches is trained in more than one of these fields. You watch them work with other parents in recorded sessions.
Oliver Watzal has led STIP in Munich since 2003 and works as a systemic therapist, coach, supervisor and mediator. For 17 years he worked at a family counselling centre, supporting parents, couples and families. As a DGSF-certified trainer in systemic therapy, supervision and coaching, he trains counsellors, coaches and family therapists. He coaches executives as well as parents, which means he knows the daily reality of working couples from both sides. His starting point: parents already have the resources they need to develop sound solutions for their family life. In his sessions he helps them activate those resources and use them effectively.
Tatjana Rosenberg is a systemic therapist for individuals, couples and families as well as a child and adolescent therapist (DGSF). As a certified trainer at Munich's institute for systemic education she teaches therapists herself, from systemic counselling to child and adolescent therapy. In her practice she works as a parenting coach with families on exactly the everyday situations this program is about. Before training as a therapist she studied business psychology, so she knows both worlds her coachees come from. Her approach: parents are effective through presence and connection, especially in the hard moments.
Boris Gebhard is a systemic coach, systemic therapist, systemic child and adolescent therapist and systemic couples therapist (each DGSF). As a certified DGSF trainer he trains systemic counsellors, therapists, and child and adolescent therapists. He has run his own practice camino puro since 2015, now based in Freising. He started out as a social pedagogue and experiential educator, and that groundedness still shapes how he works. His approach: strengthening parents and children takes both perspectives.
Why a real education
We learn the ABCs of parenting by doing, and mostly it goes well enough. What we cannot see is everything we do not know. That is what a real education is for. We are not doing anything wrong. No one ever showed us what there is to know in the first place.
We are already good parents. What we lack is the craft for the moments when love alone is not enough, and the eye for what we miss without noticing: for fathers who want more than well-meant advice, for mothers who no longer want to carry it alone, and for couples who each bring a different childhood with them.
Caregiving is leadership. Emotional steadiness is a skill. Family culture is something you design.
Method
Knowledge alone doesn’t change behaviour. So you watch real coaching sessions, recognise the same patterns in yourself, and train new strategies. This covers the whole spectrum from anger to anxiety and everything in between, depending on the character of parent and child, and just as much about what never gets loud and still leaves its mark: praise in the wrong place, pain that gets brushed aside.
You see, in concrete examples, how familiar everyday situations are taken apart with precision, without being put on the spot yourself. That is observational learning: you learn by watching.
You see which reactions and blind spots come from your own childhood and where no one ever showed you how to do it differently. The first you don't want to pass on; the second you can learn.
Short stylised videos (AI-generated, grounded in research) from the child's perspective show how your behaviour lands with your child and what changes when you do it differently.
With your Accountability Buddy, your fixed learning partnership from the cohort, and the physical workbook you train small, repeatable steps and anchor them in everyday life, until they hold even in the heated moment.
How observational learning works
Real sessions with parents who agreed to it, recorded in advance. You are never filmed or recorded yourselves, and no coach sits in your living room.
The same scenes you know from home, without you sitting in the hot seat.
With workbook and Accountability Buddy, until the new steps hold even on mornings when everything happens at once.
Curriculum · in six weeks
Every topic runs through the same four steps: origin, effect on you, effect on your child, strategy. Strategies are in every parenting book. The first two steps are why knowledge turns into changed behaviour.
The 4 to 6 hours are per person. A week can look like this:
Together that is roughly four to four and a half hours; it grows towards six in weeks when you go deeper into the workbook. An example, not a set schedule: you decide when you learn, each at your own pace.
The six weeks move from the outside in, and back out again: first your everyday life, then you, then your child, then the two of you.
The typical situations every family knows, from getting dressed to dinner, plus the expectations that arrive from outside.
How closeness, feelings, boundaries and achievement were handled in your childhood home still shapes how you react and how you measure worth. Knowing your own pattern takes away part of its power in daily life.
The mind has three states, yours as well as your child's. You learn to read your own and to stay kind to yourself, even on the days when nothing works out. Plus the knowledge of what your child can already do at their age, and what they cannot yet.
What looks like defiance is usually a state your child cannot leave on their own just yet. You learn to respond to what is actually needed, and how reconciliation works after a fight.
The list in your head, the couple behind the parenting team, and negotiating needs without keeping score. If you parent alone, this is the week you build your own support network.
Your own needs are the precondition for everything else to hold. You take care of yourself, so your child does not have to do it for you. And you decide what from your story may stay, what can go, and what gets to grow: the version your child will one day inherit.
Founder and architect of the program
I am the mother of two spirited girls (2 and 4), and I am building this program for parents like my husband and me. My background is BMW, Allianz and consulting; I trained as a mechanical engineer.
At The Parenting MBA I sit on the coachee side of the table. Knowing a lot is a long way from doing it when it counts. The coaching is done by the experts.
Questions, doubts, objections? Write to me directly: juliane@theparentingmba.com
Founding Members · our first twelve couples
The first couple is on board · 11 of 12 places open
For calmer evenings, a home with fewer power struggles, a child who is allowed to show their feelings, and for finally feeling confident in the way you parent. For the ordinary afternoons in between, where closeness grows because you know what matters. And with the prospect that the Accountability Buddy becomes someone you stay in touch with well beyond the program.
Production is under way: filming happens in October, and Cohort 01 starts in early 2027.
The pilot price applies to Cohort 01 only. If you'd like your employer to help cover it, we handle that conversation.
€500 deposit now, €2,300 at the start in early 2027, in instalments if you prefer.
Please note: Cohort 01 runs in German. An English cohort is in the works.
One to one
Half an hour alone with Juliane, one of you or both of you, by video call, on one of the next open evenings at 8:30 pm German time, once the children are asleep. No sales pitch: questions, doubts and objections belong on the table.
Voices
The toughest conversations before we built anything were with the fathers. Three lines from those talks that stuck with us:
If this saves me from fighting my way through the endless jungle of parenting guides, it is worth its weight in gold.
Men talk to each other far too little. In a structured program like this, that hurdle is finally gone.
What would convince me? My child as an adult, telling me in hindsight: thank you for doing that program back then, it meant a lot.
That is the bar we want to be measured against.
Not decided yet?
The questionnaire walks through the situations this is about and shows where you stand as a family. Anonymous, no sign-up, no obligation, in about 3 minutes.
If only one of you is convinced: send this page on. It covers the time commitment and the cost in one place.
If it is the money or the timing
Between “we want this” and “we can pay for this now” there is sometimes half a year. Put your name down anyway: we will follow up with the coaches' names, the start date and how many pilot places are left. And if it is the amount, let's talk. Most of it is only due at the program start and can be paid in five interest-free monthly instalments, and some employers cover training like this.
FAQ
The program
A parenting book gives you answers, therapy works through the past. Here you train: six weeks of hands-on practice for the most consequential job none of us was prepared for. As a couple, with a fixed Accountability Buddy at your side. You taught yourselves the basics of parenting; now you get to master it.
At the core are recorded coaching sessions: you watch experienced coaches work with other parents. Parents talking about why their child won’t listen, or why things end in shouting so often. The coaches get to the bottom of it, and you recognise yourselves without ever being in the hot seat. Alongside that come short video lessons on developmental psychology and parenting, a printed workbook and your Accountability Buddy. The applying happens at home, because in the moment that counts, no coach is with you. Knowledge alone doesn’t change behaviour; repetition and someone who holds you to it do. That’s exactly why it takes six weeks.
A fixed learning partner across the six weeks: father with father, mother with mother, chosen to match your stage of life, not a random pairing. Once a week you check in, 20 to 30 minutes, by call or voice message, whenever suits you both; that time is already part of the 4 to 6 hours. These are things most people talk about with almost no one, and with one fixed person and a clear frame it becomes easy. You agree on confidentiality with each other explicitly before you start. And if the two of you don’t click, you simply switch.
What reaches your child is shaped between the two of you. As a pair you pull in the same direction, instead of one of you fighting old patterns alone. Different ideas about parenting are not an obstacle, they are the normal case: each of you learns at your own pace, and the workbook gives you concrete prompts for the conversation at home. Bit by bit, two parenting styles grow into one, without either of you having to win the other over. If you are a single parent, you take part solo; your Accountability Buddy matters all the more.
A confidential session just for you, 90 minutes, live with the coach of your choice, included in the price. In the recorded coachings you watch the coaches work with other parents; your own session is about your situation and what you want to put into practice at home. From the midpoint of the program you pick your coach; by then you will have seen all three at work and know whose style suits you. The session is guaranteed for every couple. Only the number of slots per coach is limited; if your first choice is fully booked, you pick another.
Impact & proof
At the start and at the end you answer the same questions about concrete everyday situations. One honest catch: once you have learned to look more closely, you judge yourself more strictly at the end. That is why you also re-rate your starting point at the end; that way you see the real change instead of a shifted self-image. It remains a self-assessment, not a lab result. What counts in the end you will notice at home anyway: evenings that no longer escalate, and a child who brings their feelings to you.
The coachings are led by Oliver Watzal, Tatjana Rosenberg and Boris Gebhard; you will find their introductions further up this page. All three are certified by the German Association for Systemic Therapy, Counselling and Family Therapy (DGSF), have worked with parents for many years and train therapists themselves. The program itself was built and is run by founder Juliane Berger. The content follows established approaches from attachment and developmental psychology, and learning by watching video is one of the best-researched formats in parent education: meta-analyses show that parents measurably change their behaviour with it.
Menting et al. 2013: meta-analysis of 50 studies →
Spencer et al. 2020: meta-analysis of 28 online parenting programs →
Price & payment
Founding Members are the very first twelve couples: you secure one of the twelve pilot places in the first cohort, and this status is offered only once. You pay €2,800 instead of the later €3,800 per couple, which is €1,400 per person, in two steps: a €500 deposit now, and €2,300 only at the start in early 2027. The €2,300 can also be paid in five interest-free monthly instalments of €460, that’s €230 per person per month; you decide that before the start. And if a different split works better for you, say during parental leave, write to us and we will find one that does.
Your risk is capped, in writing: if the first 14 days after the start don’t convince you, you step out and get everything back, deposit and balance. The balance is only due at the start anyway. It is all in the agreement, which you can read before you pay. And why now: the twelve pilot places and the pilot price exist only once; they are given out until 30 November 2026.
Write to us anyway: juliane@theparentingmba.com. We fund additional places for families who otherwise couldn’t join. The number is limited, and we allocate them by need. Money shouldn’t be the thing that stops you.
Measure the price by what is different at home afterwards: one shared parenting style instead of two competing ones, if-then plans for your most frequent conflict situations, practised during the six weeks, and the experience that a hard moment can end differently in your family. The substance behind it: 12 hours of recorded coachings, short video lessons of 5 to 10 minutes each on developmental psychology, parenting and personal development, the 90-minute 1:1 session with the coach of your choice, a workbook per person, the Accountability Buddy and the self-assessment. For two people across six weeks that is €1,400 each, and most of it can be paid in instalments.
Yes, from the moment your place is secured. Bring in another couple and you receive €250, and the couple you referred receives €250 as well. All it takes is your name in the “Referred by” field when they pay; the credit arrives at the program start. There is no limit on how many couples you refer.
Practical
The program runs without fixed times; you decide when you learn. If a week falls through, sick child, business trip, general chaos, you check in briefly with your Accountability Buddy and simply take two weeks for that one; then you finish a week later, together. Your access to the platform stays with you permanently anyway.
Yes. Companies can cover places for their people, as professional development that lands at home. Write to juliane@theparentingmba.com and we will handle the conversation with the company.
You fill in the questionnaire without a name; we only need your name and email once you secure your place. We use your answers for exactly two things: to see whether the program fits your situation, and to choose your Accountability Buddy. We pass nothing on to third parties; the service providers who run the site technically are listed in the privacy policy. Payment runs through Stripe, so we never see your card details. And if you want something deleted, one email is enough and we will delete it.
Cohort 01, our first run, starts in early 2027. Before that, the twelve Founding Member couples secure their places. The questionnaire gets you in first.