image via Angela Thomas
Happy Monday! Hope you've had a peaceful weekend and are enjoying a low key start to your week. I've been excited for days to share this post with you. When I read a book that has me melted to tears three times in the first 20 pages I have to share it. 52 Things Kids Need from a Mom by Angela Thomas is a book I picked up to look at in a hospital gift shop this past week. I immediately felt it would bless my life and my soon to be little family and that's a pretty valuable tool for just $13.
I started reading it in the car on a long drive with The Man who was listening to some pretty loud music to keep him energized at the wheel. The first thing I did was go through the table of contents and just read all 52 things. Genius list. Then I began the first chapters and I was sitting in the passenger seat wiping tears from my eyes at the amazingly inspiring ideas in this book and how I imagined they could impact the happiness and joy of a child and a family.
I am so excited about this book and I am just beginning it. But it has already changed me, my thoughts, my conversations with The Man and my thinking and approach to motherhood. This book would be an amazing blessing to any mom, step mom, expectant mom or woman who fulfills the role of a mother in the life of any child. It would make a fantastic anytime friend gift or for a birthday, Mother's Day or baby shower gift. This book would put peace in the heart and a smile on the face of any woman who reads it.
Each chapter is short and is just one small thing kids need from mom. Thomas has come up with some really great ideas too. Their simplicity elevates the potential of motherhood and makes it all seem so doable. They are simple and beautiful things too, nothing stressful, overwhelming or too demanding. This is a guilt-free parenting guide.
In fact, when you get in tune with how simple these things are, you are suddenly blessed with the freedom to not worry about all the other things that are not important at all that often keep moms working too late into the night, worrying too much and wearing themselves ragged about.
On the back cover it says the "chapters are packed with specifics to help you:
- make your children feel loved
- teach and encourage communication
- establish a positive, wholesome environment
- know when and how to correct behavior and set consequences
- help your kids persevere and succeed"
Those five things cover the basis of much of a mother's stress and parenting worries and exhaustion. Thomas's writing style is friendly and warm and it's obvious that she understands the stresses and strains of family life and mothering. She acknowledges the challenges while sounding realistic rather than depressing. She inspires without being bossy or sounding in the least bit like a know-it-all. This was the first time I've come across Angela Thomas, but I'm very keen now to check out some of her other books.
If you are a mom, I cannot recommend this book to you enough. You will be excited. You will cry. You will be inspired to new heights in your call as mother. You can find this book at Angela Thomas online, Amazon and many other bookstores. The reader ratings for this book are 5-star. I felt a kinship of experience and enthusiasm with every one of the readers who commented.
If you read it, I would love to hear the parts that made you cry, think and changed your thoughts about motherhood! Have you read other books that changed the way you parent, gave you renewed strength or calmed you down about your job as a parent? I'd love to hear about those too and have you share them with other readers.
I'll be back later this morning with a peek at another fun shop from our trip to San Francisco. My mouth is still watering every time I think about it. Happy Monday Friends!
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