I was a really good mom before I had kids: reinventing modern motherhood

Wow. I have read a lot of books about parenting in the past 2 years…wait – let me re-phrase that. I have started to read a lot of books about parenting, sometimes skipping ahead to the crucial parts (i.e., how to get your baby to sleep alone) and then being disappointed to learn that I’ve already screwed up (“Never nurse your baby to sleep.” Dammit!); sometimes feeling like a failure just reading the “About the Author” and giving up.

I read this entire book in just two sittings – and I felt like it was finally a book written for me! A real person! (Note – I didn’t say “mom”…)

I especially felt like the end wrapped it all up in a single thought – that we get so wrapped up in being/doing/providing the best for our kids that we don’t realize that kids learn most from our actions:

“Our children are watching us. They’re seeing our stress, our anxiety, how we
beat oursleves up. We’re teaching them that good enough is not good enough.
We’re showing them that anything less than perfect is not OK.”

Although one of the tenets of the book is to resist recruitment to the Mommy Wars and stop all the judgement, I really loved the Dirty Little Secrets woven throughout…and I found the chapter on husbands/partners especially relevant.

Now go read it yourself…you can also check out the website at http://www.iwasareallygoodmom.com/