The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers - Paperback

The critically acclaimed author of "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters," puts her 25 years' experience as a practicing pediatrician and counselor into a sound, sane approach to reshaping the frustrating, exhausting lives of so many moms.

From the Author

The Ten Habits of Happy Mothers
Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose and Sanity

Over the past 25 years, I have witnessed an alarming trend in the emotional health of mothers across America. We are more stressed, more anxious than at any time in history. Studies show that even while mothers have more opportunities to do and be whatever we want, something is terribly wrong. Antidepressant and anxiolytic (sedatives) use in mothers has skyrocketed over the past ten years. As a pediatrician, I have come to realize that the best way I can care for my patients is to make sure that their parents are emotionally, physically and spiritually healthy. Sound parents raise sound kids.

I decided to drill down and uncover the roots of the stresses mothers were experiencing. I interviewed hundreds of mothers and found, what I believe to be the source of much of our angst. We believe that we should be perfect mothers, raise perfect children, perform perfectly at our jobs and be perfect wives. Of course, we don’t appear to be succeeding, nonetheless, every mother feels that she needs to improve in one or all areas of her life. In short, she never lets herself “off the hook.”

The answer to the stresses mothers are experiencing, lies in taking a hard look at why we do what we do. Then, it means paying serious attention to the fundamentals of our happiness. These fundamentals, I call “habits” because that’s what we must form them to be, if we are to get rid of our angst and live richer lives. Many seem overly simple and obvious, but my contention is that the simple habits are the hardest to adopt.

The book is patterned after Richard Foster’s excellent book, Celebration of Discipline. In similar fashion, I outline the ten keys to a mother’s happiness: faith, solitude, simplicity, understanding her true value as a mother, improving friendships, loving better, getting a healthy perspective on money, confronting fear, living with hope and avoid competing with other mothers. This is not a book about how to be a better mother, but it is the first of its kind to free mothers to be the women they were created to be.

- Meg Meeker

Pages: 249
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Format: Paperback
Release Date: 2011
Chapters: 10
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0345518071
Genre: Business
Target Audience: Mothers, Parents and Grandparents
SKU: 9780345518071OLP