I See Only a Hat – What The Little Prince Can Teach Us About Parenting | Psychodrama Workshop
About the Event

What might your child be seeing that you have stopped being able to see?

In the opening pages of The Little Prince, a child draws a boa constrictor that has swallowed an elephant. Yet when adults look at the drawing, they see only a hat.

That simple moment raises a surprisingly powerful question about parenting.

As parents, we bring love to our relationships with our children. But we also bring our own worries, expectations, histories, experiences and ideas about what a child should be.

When life becomes rushed or stressful, it can become easy to focus on what is immediately visible: unfinished homework, screen time, behaviour, attitude or something a child has done wrong.

In doing so, it can become harder to notice the child underneath the behaviour.

I See Only a Hat: What The Little Prince Can Teach Us About Parenting is a half-day, in-person psychodrama workshop that uses the world of The Little Prince as a starting point for looking at parenting with fresh eyes.

Through conversations and simple psychodramatic exercises, participants will explore familiar parenting moments, look at interactions from different positions, briefly step into a child's perspective and experiment with different ways of responding.

The workshop is designed as an opportunity to slow down, become more curious about familiar patterns and reflect on the parent you already are.

You do not need to have read The Little Prince to participate.

The workshop is open to parents of children of any age.

Come with curiosity. Slow down. Look again. See the child beyond the behaviour.

What Does “I See Only a Hat” Mean?

The title comes from one of the most memorable ideas in The Little Prince.

A child's drawing contains something adults fail to recognise. Instead of seeing a boa constrictor that has swallowed an elephant, they see an ordinary hat.

The story illustrates how differently children and adults can perceive the same thing.

In parenting, something similar can happen.

A child may be experiencing an emotion, worry, disappointment, confusion or need, while the adult sees only the outward behaviour.

The child is upset, so we see an “attitude”.

The homework is unfinished, so we see irresponsibility.

The child is asking for more screen time, so we see disobedience.

The workshop invites parents to pause and wonder:

What else might be happening underneath what I can immediately see?

Parenting Through Fresh Eyes

Parenting involves constant decisions, responsibilities and expectations.

There are routines to manage, boundaries to maintain, concerns to navigate and countless everyday interactions.

In the middle of all this, it is easy to develop familiar ways of responding.

Sometimes those responses are useful. At other times, they may come from our own worries, assumptions or expectations.

This workshop creates space to step back from those automatic reactions and look at parenting from another perspective.

Using The Little Prince as a creative framework, participants are invited to consider how adults see children, how children may experience adults and what can happen when the two perspectives do not quite meet.

The World of The Little Prince

The workshop travels through some of the memorable encounters and characters in The Little Prince.

The book's unusual inhabitants and relationships provide a creative way to reflect on familiar human behaviours.

Characters such as the King, the Vain Man and the Businessman can help participants recognise some of the reflexes adults may fall into.

The Fox opens questions about relationships and what they need in order to develop.

The Rose brings attention to themes of love, responsibility and caring for someone who is also becoming a person separate from us.

Participants do not need to know the book in advance. The workshop uses these encounters as prompts for exploration rather than requiring literary knowledge.

The King and the Adult Need for Control

The characters in The Little Prince can be read as reflections of different adult tendencies.

The King, for example, can invite us to think about authority, control and the desire to have things happen according to our expectations.

Parenting naturally involves setting boundaries and providing structure.

But the workshop creates an opportunity to reflect on the difference between guidance and simply expecting a child to fit a predetermined idea of how they should behave.

The character becomes a springboard for exploring how adult expectations can shape everyday interactions.

The Vain Man and the Need for Recognition

The Vain Man offers another perspective on adult behaviour.

Through this encounter, participants can reflect on the desire to be admired, validated or recognised.

Parenting can sometimes involve expectations around a child's achievements, behaviour or appearance that are influenced by what adults themselves value.

The workshop uses the character as an opportunity to examine these familiar adult reflexes and consider how they might influence relationships with children.

The Businessman and the Pressure of Productivity

The Businessman represents another distinctive way of seeing the world.

His obsession with counting and possessing things can prompt reflection on how adults sometimes become focused on productivity, achievement, schedules and measurable outcomes.

Parenting can easily become filled with lists, deadlines, routines and targets.

Homework completed.

Activities attended.

Screen time controlled.

Tasks finished.

The workshop invites participants to consider whether, in focusing on what needs to get done, it is possible to lose sight of the person doing it.

The Fox and What Relationships Need

The Fox brings the conversation into the territory of relationships.

The character raises questions about connection, trust and what it means to create a meaningful bond with another person.

For parents, this can open a different way of thinking about the relationship with a child.

Beyond instructions and responsibilities, what helps a relationship grow?

What makes a child feel seen?

What does connection require from the adult?

The Fox provides a meaningful entry point into these questions.

The Rose, Love and Responsibility

The Rose brings together questions of love, responsibility and caring.

Parenting is often described through love, but love can exist alongside many complicated emotions and responsibilities.

A child is someone we care deeply about, yet that child is also gradually becoming their own person.

The workshop uses the Rose to explore this tension between caring for a child and recognising their growing individuality.

A Child Growing Into Their Own Person

One of the important ideas explored in the workshop is that children are not simply extensions of their parents.

They are people who are gradually developing their own identities, preferences, perspectives and ways of experiencing the world.

For parents, this can create moments of joy as well as moments of difficulty.

The workshop invites participants to think about what it means to care for someone while also allowing them to become increasingly separate from us.

This can lead to questions about expectations, boundaries, autonomy and connection.

From Conversation to Psychodrama

The workshop is not simply a discussion about parenting.

It is an in-person psychodrama workshop, meaning participants will explore the questions through action as well as conversation.

Psychodramatic exercises can provide a way of bringing familiar situations into the room and looking at them from different positions.

Instead of discussing an interaction only in the abstract, participants can work with a situation more experientially.

This creates an opportunity to notice what happens when the same moment is viewed from another perspective.

Bringing Everyday Parenting Moments Into the Room

The workshop encourages participants to work with everyday parenting moments.

These may involve situations that feel familiar: a disagreement, a difficult conversation, frustration around routines or a moment when parent and child seem unable to understand each other.

The supplied event description does not specify particular scenarios that participants will be asked to enact.

Instead, the workshop broadly invites parents to bring questions from everyday parenting into an experiential space.

Looking at Interactions From Different Positions

Perspective can change the way an interaction is understood.

A parent may experience a conversation one way while a child experiences the exact same moment very differently.

The workshop uses simple psychodramatic exercises to explore these shifts in perspective.

By looking at an interaction from different positions, participants can consider what may become visible when they temporarily step outside their usual point of view.

Stepping Briefly Into a Child's World

One of the workshop's central invitations is to step briefly into the child's world.

This does not mean assuming that a parent can fully know everything a child experiences.

Rather, it creates an opportunity to become curious about another perspective.

What might the child be feeling?

What might they be trying to communicate?

What might their behaviour mean from their point of view?

These questions can help participants examine familiar situations differently.

Experimenting With Different Responses

The workshop also creates room to experiment with responding differently.

Instead of assuming that there is always one correct response to a parenting challenge, participants can explore alternative ways of approaching familiar situations.

The purpose is not to provide a universal formula for parenting.

Instead, the workshop offers an opportunity to notice habitual responses and consider what else might become possible.

What the Workshop Is Really About

At its heart, the workshop is about seeing.

Seeing the child beyond the behaviour.

Seeing the parent beyond the role.

Seeing the relationship beyond the immediate conflict.

Seeing familiar interactions from another angle.

And perhaps noticing things that become difficult to see when life is moving too quickly.

The Little Prince provides the metaphor, while psychodrama provides an experiential way to explore it.

Open to Parents of Children of Any Age

The workshop is open to parents of children of any age.

Whether your child is very young, school-going, a teenager or older, the questions around connection, expectations, responsibility and individuality can take different forms throughout parenting.

The workshop does not restrict participation to one particular parenting stage.

Instead, it provides a broader space for parents to reflect on the relationships they are currently navigating.

You Do Not Need to Read The Little Prince

A useful feature of the workshop is that prior familiarity with The Little Prince is not required.

The book serves as a creative framework for exploring parenting questions rather than functioning as required pre-reading.

You can therefore participate even if you have never read the book.

The facilitators will guide participants through the relevant characters and encounters as part of the workshop experience.

What to Expect
The Little Prince as a Parenting Lens

Use memorable moments from the book to explore everyday questions about parenting.

Half-Day Workshop

Spend a focused period reflecting, discussing and participating in experiential exercises.

Psychodrama

Explore parenting questions through action as well as conversation.

Perspective-Taking

Look at familiar interactions from different positions.

Child's Perspective

Briefly step into the child's world and consider what may be happening beneath visible behaviour.

Alternative Responses

Experiment with different ways of responding to familiar parenting moments.

Love and Responsibility

Explore what it means to care for a child who is also growing into a separate person.

Reflective Learning

Notice the parent you already are and consider what becomes possible when you slow down.

Why Attend This Parenting Workshop?
Look Beyond Behaviour

Explore what may exist beneath the behaviour that is immediately visible.

Reflect on Your Parenting Patterns

Notice some of the reflexes that can emerge when parents are rushed, anxious or guided by expectations.

Explore Perspective

Consider how the same interaction can feel different depending on whose position you are seeing it from.

Experience Psychodrama

Move beyond conversation and use experiential exercises to explore parenting situations.

Reconnect With Curiosity

Instead of immediately deciding what a child's behaviour means, practise wondering what else might be happening.

Think About Growing Independence

Explore the relationship between caring for a child and recognising that child as a person developing their own identity.

A Workshop About Seeing the Child Beneath the Behaviour

Children communicate in many ways.

Sometimes their needs appear clearly. At other times, they may emerge through frustration, silence, resistance or behaviour that adults find difficult.

Parents naturally need to respond to what is happening in front of them.

But the workshop asks whether there are moments when the visible behaviour becomes so dominant that the child underneath becomes harder to see.

This question sits at the centre of the event.

The Parent You Already Are

The workshop is not presented as a formula for becoming a “perfect” parent.

Instead, it encourages participants to notice the parent they already are.

Every parent comes to parenting with their own experiences, histories and expectations.

Those influences are not necessarily negative.

But becoming aware of them can make it easier to recognise when they are shaping a particular interaction.

The workshop creates space for that kind of reflection without reducing parenting to a checklist of right and wrong behaviours.

Slowing Down Enough to See Again

Modern parenting can be busy.

There may always be something to finish, organise, solve or worry about.

In that environment, slowing down can feel difficult.

Yet the central invitation of the workshop is precisely that: slow down enough to see your child again.

The event uses literature and psychodrama to create a temporary space where parents can pause the usual rhythm of daily life and look more closely at familiar relationships.

What Becomes Possible When We Look Again?

A change in perspective does not automatically solve a parenting challenge.

But it can change the questions we ask.

Instead of only asking:

“How do I stop this behaviour?”

A parent might begin asking:

“What is my child experiencing right now?”

Instead of:

“Why won't they listen?”

Perhaps:

“What are they trying to communicate?”

The workshop creates space for these kinds of questions without promising simple answers.

The Little Prince and Parenting

The Little Prince has a language of its own for talking about relationships, responsibility, perception and human behaviour.

The workshop draws on this imaginative world to make parenting questions easier to explore from a different angle.

The unusual encounters with the King, Vain Man, Businessman, Fox and Rose become prompts for examining real-life adult tendencies and parent-child relationships.

This combination of literature and experiential work gives the session its distinctive character.

About the Facilitators

The workshop is facilitated by Aruna Gopakumar and Preeti Balasaria, who bring different professional experiences to the session.

Their combined backgrounds span psychotherapy, facilitation, Transactional Analysis, education, teaching and corporate environments.

Aruna Gopakumar

Aruna Gopakumar is a TSTA (P), psychotherapist, supervisor and founder of The School Of You.

She brings years of therapeutic and leadership experience to the workshop.

Her background contributes to the reflective and experiential nature of the session, particularly as participants explore parenting questions through psychodrama.

Preeti Balasaria

Preeti Balasaria is a facilitator and Transactional Analysis Learner Practitioner, currently training as a psychotherapist and working towards certification as a Transactional Analyst (CTA).

She brings together more than a decade of corporate experience in global technology organisations with a background in education and teaching.

This combination of experience contributes another perspective to the workshop's focus on relationships, communication and human behaviour.

A Blend of Different Perspectives

The two facilitators bring different experiences to the workshop.

Aruna's background in psychotherapy, supervision and leadership is complemented by Preeti's experience in facilitation, education, teaching and corporate environments.

Together, their backgrounds support a workshop that explores parenting from multiple angles rather than presenting a single rigid framework.

A Reflective Space for Parents

The workshop provides parents with an opportunity to temporarily step away from the constant demands of parenting and reflect on the relationship itself.

It is a space to ask questions, explore familiar moments and notice patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed.

The event is experiential rather than simply lecture-based, allowing participants to engage actively with the themes.

Event Highlights

Event: I See Only a Hat: What The Little Prince Can Teach Us About Parenting

Format: Half-day, in-person psychodrama workshop

Theme: Parenting, perception, relationships and perspective

Creative Framework: The Little Prince

Audience: Parents of children of any age

Prior Reading Required: No

Learning Approach: Action, conversation and simple psychodramatic exercises

Key Areas: Parenting reflexes, perspective-taking, child’s world, relationships, love, responsibility and growing independence

Facilitators: Aruna Gopakumar and Preeti Balasaria

Event Date: Not supplied in the provided details

Event Time: Not supplied in the provided details

Venue: Not supplied in the provided details

Ticket Price: Not supplied in the provided details

Important Event Information

The supplied event description does not specify the exact date, timing, venue, organiser or ticket price.

The confirmed workshop information includes:

Half-day format
In-person psychodrama workshop
Open to parents of children of any age
No need to have read The Little Prince
Facilitated by Aruna Gopakumar and Preeti Balasaria
Exploration through action and conversation
Simple psychodramatic exercises
Focus on parenting perspectives, relationships, love, responsibility and seeing the child beyond visible behaviour

Guests should check the latest event or ticketing information for final logistical details.

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Experience the “I See Only a Hat” Parenting Workshop

I See Only a Hat: What The Little Prince Can Teach Us About Parenting offers parents a different way to pause and reflect on the everyday experience of raising a child.

Using The Little Prince as a creative lens, the workshop explores what can happen when adults become focused on behaviour, expectations and responsibilities while losing sight of the child underneath.

Through a half-day, in-person psychodrama format, participants will explore familiar parenting moments through action as well as conversation.

The session uses simple experiential exercises to help participants look at interactions from different positions, briefly step into the child's world and experiment with alternative responses.

The memorable characters of The Little Prince — including the King, Vain Man, Businessman, Fox and Rose — provide prompts for exploring adult reflexes, relationships, love, responsibility and the experience of caring for someone who is growing into a person separate from us.

The workshop is open to parents of children of any age, and you do not need to have read The Little Prince beforehand.

Facilitated by Aruna Gopakumar, TSTA (P), psychotherapist, supervisor and founder of The School Of You, and Preeti Balasaria, facilitator and Transactional Analysis Learner Practitioner, the session offers space to notice the parent you already are and consider what becomes possible when you slow down enough to see your child again.

Perhaps it is not always just a hat. Perhaps there is an elephant inside the picture waiting to be seen.