Monday, January 12, 2015

Mothering From Scratch by Melinda Means & Kathy Helgemo (Book Review)

Disclosure of material connection- I received a copy of the book from Bethany House Publisher in exchange for my honest thought. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own.

About the book-

Find Your Own Mothering Style

Trying to follow someone else's rules for mothering can take the joy out of being a parent. But Mothering From Scratch show you how to develop your own style that helps you be the best mom for your kids.

Full of solid biblical truth, this book will help you

  • explore your personality and examine your own strengths and weaknesses in order to find out what works for you
  • tap into the resources surrounding you and get mentoring and support from other moms
  • push past the fear of change or doing it wrong and allow room for grace in your mothering
Melinda Means and Kathy Helgemo provide a flexible, customization approach to help you discover your optimal parenting style

My thoughts-

From the very first sentence in the forward by Suzie Eller, I knew this was going to be a book that I could relate to and that would be encouraging to me. This is not your average parenting book that gives you the exact formula to have a smooth ride as a parent, You know those one size fits all books that say that if you just do a, b and c things, you will have this parenting thing down. Those books while well meaning and filled with advice that anyone of us could probably apply to our every day lives, we are all different people with children who are also different people (many times in the same family) and a one size fits all approach is just not plausible. I have known this since very shortly after I delivered my twins. My daughter, my first born, was an easy baby, but two newborns arriving when you are not yet two would probably make anyone a little grumpy. Anyway, I tried to do all of the "right" things to parent, and I quickly learned that my personality and my kids' personalities do not fit what society as a whole would consider great parenting.I know my strengths and weaknesses and I am always willing to work on them, but as a whole at this point in my role as mother (7 years in) I am more comfortable in my own skin and could really care less what other people think about how I parent as long as it is what works for our family and that it works towards the ultimate goal of my kids turning into respectful, responsible, empathetic, compassionate, humble adults. 

Mothering From Scratch is a great book for any mother to read, especially one that feels she is not doing things right (what does that even mean? But I know I have uttered those words myself plenty of times on this parenting journey). This book will encourage you to come up with your own parenting style based on your own strengths and weaknesses. It is full of great stories that will encourage you that we are all different but all working towards the same goal. The most helpful thing I found about the book was the in depth discussion questions at the end of each chapter that will really have you think and may help you discover things you didn't even know about yourself. I would recommend this book to absolutely any mom trying to find her footing or a mom who maybe already knows who she is as a mother, but could use encouraging reminders or new discoveries on her parenting journey. 

Mothering From Scratch-


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