Seattle ? Even parents who would never physically abuse their child know they could do better at the all-important job of raising their kids.

“Our philosophy is that parenting is difficult, and everyone needs a little help at some point,” said Linda McDaniels, associate director of Parent Trust for Washington Children.

That’s why the nonprofit Parent Trust, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, focuses on family support as well as child-abuse prevention.

“We’re there for families, wherever they are, however they are,” said executive director Jack Edgerton.

This means balancing services for all parents with programs targeted at families at higher risk for abuse. General services include a staffed Parent Help Line and parent support groups, while more targeted programs offer help for parents in recovery from alcohol/drug use and one-on-one parent coaching for rural families in Yakima.

“Their organization really believes in building on the strengths of families — even families having difficulty raising their children,” said state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, who serves on the House’s Children and Family Services Committee.

The Seattle-based Parent Trust started as Parents Anonymous of Washington State under the auspices of the Children’s Home Society of Washington in 1978. It moved into its own office in downtown Seattle in 1990 and runs programs statewide.

When McDaniels started in 1985, receptionists from social-service agencies would patch crying parents through to her on her home phone. Telling parents to call crisis lines didn’t help as parents weren’t suicidal — they just didn’t know what to do with their kids.

So the organization’s toll-free Family Help Line was born. The line now averages about 100 calls a month, with 1,537 family coaching calls received during the fiscal year ending this June.

“It’s everything from ‘I can’t get my baby to stop crying’ to ‘I haven’t seen my teen for a week,'” said McDaniels. “We get single parents who say ‘I can’t keep it up without support.'”

McDaniels recalls walking a dad through saying “I’m sorry” for the first time to his child for words spoken in anger. “We try to help parents empathize and understand how their words sound to a child,” she said. “Parents don’t wake up intending to damage their child’s self-esteem.”

Call volume can vary, with spikes after the number is publicized or when current events spark interest. After a murder-suicide in Tacoma, Wash., the Help Line took a lot of calls on family-violence issues.