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As much
as motherhood has brought me all the joy and pride I had hoped, it has also
added more stress and worry to my life. The culmination of this stress and worry
is a perpetual sense of guilt. Imagine how excited I was to learn that an entire
book had been written to address this "mommy guilt."
While I can’t say this book brought me any great epiphanies, I would still
recommend it as a helpful addition to any mother’s library. It offers practical
advice to mothers of children ranging from infancy to middle-school age,
beginning by listing the top guilt-inducing areas for the various stages of
childhood. An exercise to score your guilt is included. (Since I'm an
accountant, it’s nice to put a number to it.)
Once mothers have quantified their guilt, the authors go on to explain the
"seven principles of the mommy guilt-free philosophy." As I stated before, these
principles aren’t necessarily new but serve as good reminders to us all. The
remainder of the book offers advice on how to put these principles into practice
in order to handle the day-to-day guilt inducers.
Finally, the appendices offer a "mommy guilt" survey for readers to weigh in as
well as a section on food staples to keep in your house and an emergency
quick-reference guide for guilt relief.
I would say that, as much as anything, this book brings reassurance to mothers
everywhere that they needn’t look far to find someone feeling exactly what they
feel. The peace of mind in that alone is invaluable.
Review by Missy Abbott, August 23, 2005
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