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Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is editor-in-chief of Catholic Digest and Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com and the author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also enjoys speaking around the country, is employed as webmaster for her parish web sites and spends time on various …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is a 30-something, single lady, living in Connecticut in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law and six kids ... and two doors down are her parents. She received her undergraduate degree from …
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DariaSockey

DariaSockey
Daria Sockey is a freelance writer and veteran of the large family/homeschooling scene. She recently returned home from a three-year experiment in full time outside employment. (Hallelujah!) Daria authored several of the original Faith&Life Catechetical Series student texts (Ignatius Press), and is currently a Senior Writer for Faith&Family magazine. A latecomer …
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Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
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Lynn Wehner

Lynn Wehner
As a wife and mother, writer and speaker, Lynn Wehner challenges others to see the blessings that flow when we struggle to say "Yes" to God’s call. Control freak extraordinaire, she is adept at informing God of her brilliant plans and then wondering why the heck they never turn out that …
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Previous The Hunger Games Home Strange But Fun Next

Moms Who Are Happy

Posted by Rebecca Teti in Reviews on Monday, August 08, 2011 12:00 PM

It’s the subtitle of Meg Meeker’s latest book that attracted me.

The full title is, The 10 Habits of Happy Moms: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose and Sanity.

If you scroll down the page at that link, you’ll find a short interview with Dr. Meeker, a pediatrician, in which she explains that she wrote the book because she wanted moms to enjoy their mothering more.

That struck a chord with me, because with all due respect to them, most parenting books appear to me to be designed to convince you you’ve already ruined your children’s lives beyond repair, and there’s nothing left for you but stress out about that for the rest of your life.

I’ve grown a little tired of moms using “overwhelmed” as the best word to describe themselves. I’m not tired of the moms, mind you—for them I feel defensive! I’ve just become less tolerant of “experts” who bully us on everything from pre-natal nutrition to childbirth to nutrition to education to discipline to….well, to the point we’re not able to enjoy our own lives and children.

This is not one of those books! Meeker is emphatically on your side. She writes:

My approach to parenting has always been to start where you are and move forward. Many parents ruminate on their mistakes and this prohibits them from becoming better parents and from enjoying parenting more. Mothers, in particular, beat themselves up so much for past mistakes and I always encourage mothers to look forward, not back. This book, is the only book I have ever seen that is written for mothers, not to be better parents, but to learn how to enjoy parenting once again. And I know that any mother can enjoy her role as a mother more!

Doesn’t that sound nice? If you’d like a taste, you might check out the series of posts our friend Elizabeth Foss has penned about the first habit. Here’s the third in the series, and you’ll find links to the other two posts within it.

Comments
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Filed under 10 habits of happy moms, books, foss, meeker, moms, motherhood, parenting, sanity

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Maria on Monday, Aug 8, 2011 1:55 PM (EDT):

I have to say, I’m not really liking this book. I read a couple chapters at the local bookstore because I heard it recommended by other Catholic moms. I found Meeker to be kind of superficial. The story about the businesswomen who drives up to her 5000 square foot home and realizes that SHE is missing out on her childrens’ lives, but not that THEY are missing out on having an involved mom, really turned me off. I’m curious to know what others think.

 
Posted by Anita on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2011 9:55 AM (EDT):

I had the same experience reading this book.  I only read about half of it, because I felt it was very superficial also and wasn’t telling me something I didn’t already know. (Kind of like when the financial person on TV recommends that you stop going to Starbuck’s everyday and voila you have $100 extra every month. Well, I don’t go there to begin with, so it finds me $0. wink )  I returned it to the library with no regrets.

I am happy for people that it does help.  I am all for anything that makes for a happier, better mom. We need more of those.  It just wasn’t that for me.  A book that did do that for me was Are We Having Fun Yet? 16 Secrets to Happy Parenting by Kay Willis, but I read it 13 years ago after my first was born.  I think it had similar messages, maybe that’s why there wasn’t much new here for me. 

Have a happy and blessed day!

 
Posted by PamL on Monday, Aug 8, 2011 8:26 PM (EDT):

I love Meg Meeker and just saw this.  I haven’t purchased it yet but I think I will.  One thing that struck me when I saw the title was, “Am I passionate, purposeful, and sane in regards to my mothering?” 

It just made me think about the joys of being a first time mother as opposed to being a mother now for 13 years and how we sort of lose that focus.  Sometimes it’s easy for me to be anything but joyful—I think it’s all the little things that get us down over the years. I was thinking that maybe this book could help me come to appreciate what I am here to do as a mother and help me reclaim that joy that sometimes is lacking!

 
Posted by Michelle Reitemeyer on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2011 6:19 AM (EDT):

I hope this book stumbles my way, since I’ve sworn off purchasing books until I read the dozens (hundreds) on my shelves.  I did buy (and read) her books on raising boys and girls and thought they were very good.

 
Posted by Meredith on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2011 6:41 AM (EDT):

Can’t wait to read this!  Just that little quote that Rebecca included—it’s huge!  I considered myself a fairly guilt-proof person until I became a mom and then I found myself being guilt-ridden about everything!  And it’s no wonder—I was considered a “failure” at labor and delivery (a c-section for “failure to progress”), a failure at breastfeeding, a failure at feeding (my daughter was labeled “failure to thrive” by one pediatrician)... how much failure can a mom take?  I found I enjoyed my second child’s infancy so much more because I shunned all “help” books.  Of course sometimes I feel guilty about that!  : )  Thanks for the recommendation Rebecca!


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