Best Online Parenting Classes

If you subscribe to The Washington Post, you’ve probably read Meghan Leahy’s advice to parents on various topics. In addition to being a certified parent coach, she’s also a parenting columnist for the national newspaper and frequently tries to help parents find their way out of sticky situations with their kids.

In her online course, Club Grow the Good, Leahy shows parents how to handle these situations. Through ten age-specific modules, she walks parents through the nitty-gritty of power struggles, discipline, family meetings, and making connections with their children. Notably, she also takes a whole family approach to her class, inviting parents to think just as much about what they need as what their kids need (because happy parents make happy kids).

What sets Leahy’s course apart from many others is the convenience, accessibility, and support baked right in. Once you register, the class begins immediately and you can work through it on your own terms.

Spouses, partners, or caregivers can join, you can access the materials forever, and there are a variety of learning resources available (like monthly bonus calls and homework assignments). You will also be able to join a closed Facebook group, allowing you to ask questions, share tips, and find support from other parents who have taken the course.

The class costs $149 monthly, and the minimum duration is six months. Leahy also offers one-on-one coaching with parents; you get six sessions for $1,580.

Are you looking for the answer to a specific parenting question? One of Peace at Home’s free online courses might be able to help.

There are two formats to choose from with free access: live classes on parenting essentials and pre-recorded ones that pack practical tips into short, manageable sessions you can start and finish in one sitting.

Both of the class formats have advantages. With a live course, you can ask questions and receive an answer from the moderator, plus access the recording afterward if you missed anything or want to hear it again.

Pre-recorded courses, on the other hand, can be played anytime you want (and offer all the playback options you need because you know your kids will probably interrupt you).

Issues like parent wellness, routines, chores, sleep training, and stress management are all presented by Peace at Home’s team of licensed mental health professionals, educators, social workers, and psychologists.

This might not be the most comprehensive class out there, but you will get reliable advice from seasoned parenting experts at no cost. And, since the classes won’t consume much of your precious free time, it’s a win-win.

With an annual subscription, you get access to all Quick Video Solution libraries, over 100 live interactive classes a year, and community support.

It’s hard enough figuring out this whole parenting thing when you have a live-in partner, but for parents going through a divorce or separation, the job becomes even more challenging. You might have competing interests, parenting styles, and priorities.

But does that mean you’re doomed to disagree on everything (and scar your kids in the process)? Thankfully, no. There are ways for divorced and separated parents to co-parent peacefully, though it does take work, willingness, and compromise.

At Active Parenting, Michael Popkin, PsyD, has developed a series of online courses to help parents through various ages and stages of their child’s life, including the one where you’re splitting from your partner and trying to find a new, healthy “normal” for your family.

This course, called Crossroads of Parenting and Divorce, breaks co-parenting down into five strategies necessary for creating a healthy relationship with your parenting partner while supporting your child and prioritizing their needs.

The course is more affordable than others at around $80, but that price tag comes with a few limitations: Once you register, you’ll need to complete all hours of the course (it takes four to six hours to work through the materials) within three weeks.

Do you feel like all your mom friends have it together, and you're just a hot mess? Parenting can be exhausting, confusing, and stressful, and unless you're a super-organized, type-A personality, it can do a number on your executive functioning.

Amanda Rueter, a former mental health counselor turned parenting educator and the creator of Messy Motherhood, knows precisely how you feel. Getting overwhelmed by the daily demands of parenting—the messes, the to-do lists, the guilt—is understandable.

Thankfully, Rueter says it doesn't have to be that way. Her online course promises to help you rediscover the joy and positivity of parenting by finding balance, peace, and downtime in your day-to-day life.

This class is a standout because it focuses on real, practical tips for organizing your task list and reducing battles with your kids. At the same time, it helps you organize your mental health, introducing a sense of much-needed confidence and calm to your parenting tactics.

Even the most frazzled, disorganized, and stressed-out moms will find themselves thinking more clearly after taking this course (around $99), which includes three short modules, live calls, and a 30-day membership in the site's community, The Messy Motherhood Village.

At its core, parenting is a relationship. It doesn't matter that you're an adult and your "partner" is a tiny, irrational toddler who likes to wear their underwear on their head—it's still a relationship, and that takes work.

This course from Laura Markham, PhD, course aims to help you grow in your parenting approach by emphasizing common aspects of all relationships: communication, confidence, respect, and deep connection.

The 12-week course takes a big-picture approach to developing healthy family bonds, including practicing emotional regulation (for you and your kids), finding routines, teaching resilience and discipline, fostering strong sibling bonds, and understanding your anger triggers.

Logistically, there's a good package deal here: for roughly $154, you get weekly audio lessons, short meditations, practical exercises and sessions, permanent access to an online support group of parents, plus a copy of Markham's popular book "Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids" (which the online course is based around).

If you feel that your stress is the biggest challenge to overcome to have a happier, more peaceful home life, this might be the best fit for you.

If you’ve ever stood in the aisle of a baby store and wondered how to choose one pacifier from the 35 different brands and models offered, there is the perfect online course for you.

The Science of Parenting is a free course offered through the University of California San Diego, focusing on breaking down the facts, research, and statistics behind all those parenting recommendations.

As parents have grown savvier over the years, they’ve paid a steep price: There are now more opinions, rumors, false “truths,” and judgments about individual parenting styles than there have ever been before. That’s where this course shines.

The five-week syllabus tackles some big, often controversial issues—think breastfeeding, vaccinations, and homeschooling, for starters—but looks at each through scientific research, studies, and best practices.

It also teaches you how to apply your newfound knowledge about analytics and correlation to topics not presented in the course (so you can keep being a parenting genius long after it ends).

The course has a free "audit" option, with access to materials only during the 5-week course. For $49, you can upgrade to "verified" and gain lifetime access to materials, graded homework and exams, and a certificate of completion.

Your kid wants to drink milk out of a blue cup, but you only have a red one to offer. The news sends them into a full-on tantrum, complete with red-faced screaming and body contortions on the kitchen floor.

What gives? Kids often feel powerless, so it only makes sense that they push back sometimes in unexpected ways. But these battles can derail the peace in your house (not to mention your sanity).

If you’re finding that power struggles with your child consume your daily life, the seven-step course at Positive Parenting Solutions tackles them from the ground up. The class begins with lessons on child psychology and misbehavior, moves through routines, consequences, and backtalk, and ends with a plan for increasing harmony in your family.

It promises to help you through your current struggles with your kids and set you up for continued success in the future. The other benefit of this program is that the lessons are customizable within your price range: For the maximum amount of resources, it will cost you roughly $350, but it can be scaled down to less than $225 to fit a smaller budget.