Book Nook Club: Parenting

Showing posts with label Parenting. Show all posts

May 11, 2012

Mom Connection by Tracey Bianchi

Being a mom to a young child can be so hard. I know, I go through it every day. When your day in and day out consists of a rigorous schedule that you must keep in order to maintain your sanity, life can become monotonous. Daily tasks include feeding- sometimes force feeding, changing diapers, making potty runs, changing clothes- sometimes 3 times a day, wiping noses, wiping hands, filling sippy cups, cleaning spills, buckling car seats, singing the ABC's- again and again and again, forcing nap time, giving baths, making dinner, watching Mickey Mouse Club House- again and again and again... ok, you get the picture. Here's where some of you scoff and say, "that's not so bad". Yeah, you're right, it's pretty great!

BUT!!! It's easy to become disconnected, isolated and depressed. How does this happen with so much activity and responsibilities every day? It's easy when the only person you talk to ALL day EVERY day is a 2 year old. When all your friends are working or not yet moms and when your husband comes home from a long day at work and doesn't want to hear about the latest diaper dilema, your life becomes very lonely.

That's what Mom Connection by Tracey Bianchi is all about. How to get our groove back... our rhythm. How to see the need to connect with other people and take it! How to step out of our comfort zones and remember that we CAN'T walk this path alone! By nature we are relational... women especially!

Tracey splits her book into 3 sections that each focus on a different area of our life as a mom in order to help us get that rhythm back on track. The first section teaches us to let go of the Mom-petition and realize that we need one another for connection. We learn that our weaknesses and our strengths don't have to divide us, but can uplift us and bring us closer together. In the second section, she discusses all the people around us that move to our groove... our families, our extended families, our friends, our spouses and even our communities. And in the final section, she really challenges us to reach out and help others to find their rhythms too.

I LOVED this book! I laughed out loud, I cried unashamedly, I sometimes looked over my shoulder to see where the hidden camera was... because seriously, some of this could have been written by ME! It just really goes to show what an amazing connector Tracey is! She's a mom just like us... she knows what we struggle with daily... she knows what our greatest fears and failures are... and she's not afraid to call us out on it! She uplifted me more than once and I would say, "HECK YES!" to her words of affirmation.

If you're a mom to a preschooler and you're feeling disconnected, you NEED to pick up this book and reclaim your rhythm!

5 Stars!

I am giving away a FREE copy of this book on my personal blog, so please follow THIS LINK to enter. (Review is the same, just scroll to the bottom for giveaway rules).

I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of this review... this is my honest opinon

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February 28, 2012

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

If you're not familiar with the title of this book, I'm sure the story will ring a few bells. It was talked about, gawked at and criticized all over the news upon it's release in early 2011.

In Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua describes the differences between Chinese parenting and "Western" parenting. And controversial, it definitely is.

Amy is a first generation American who was raised by strict Chinese parents. She explains how she was brought up to respect her parents, work hard and succeed no matter what. She married a Jewish American man and together they had two daughters, Sophie and Lulu. Amy decided that she was going to raise her daughters in the traditional "Chinese" sense, as she was raised.

Although Amy is a Harvard law grad, professor at Yale, published author and distinguished professional, she focused a large portion of her energy and time on her daughter's musical pursuits. She was determined that each of her daughters would play a musical instrument and excel at it. But excelling at something takes hours upon hours of tortuous practice, tears and yelling matches.

This book is mostly about music.

Amy makes broad generalizations about "Western" culture and parenting that is often annoying. Of course, she admits that she's not saying ALL "Western parents" are like this... but still. The same holds true for her ideas of "Chinese parents"... well, their way is apparently perfect.

As a parent, I took some of what she said as good advice. For example, she said (and I'm paraphrasing here), that children want to be good at things, but they don't want to work to be good at it. But they don't realize that in order to be good, it takes hard work, which is not always fun. This is why parents should override their wishes and do what is best for them. As a music teacher, I agree.

She also said that she doesn't believe in bribery (although she does go back on that later). She says that if anything, children should be paying the parents... not the other way around! Funny to think of it that way... and I agree!

She says that the reason Asian children are always the best in their classes is because it's expected of them. The parents believe that their child can be the very best and expect nothing less. When an Asian child brings home an A-, the parents drill over and over and over again until the child has mastered whatever subject began to slip. It's not that they're born with better brain genes, although some may, but more that their diligent work ethic allows no room for error.

She says that while Asian children are busy mastering an instrument, or drilling math problems for hours on end, Western parents have their kids in pointless activities such as little league or going to play dates and sleepovers. Asian parents never allow their children to partake in such frivolous and meaningless activities.

One thing that struck me and caused me to think... she said that while Western parents are more concerned with giving their children memorable childhoods that are endearing, fond and magical, Asian parents see childhood as training grounds for adulthood.

Amy's two children are very different from one another. Sophie is obedient and submissive... the ideal Chinese daughter. Lulu is headstrong, stubborn and tough... the Chinese mother's nightmare! Sophie was placed in piano and excelled immediately. She went on to win many prestigious competitions and had invitations to play at Carnegie Hall and at a museum event abroad. She and Amy had a bond... a friendship that was easy. Lulu, on the other hand, was forced to play violin. While she enjoyed the violin, she hated the way her mother made her practice. It seemed like Amy was shoving that violin bow down Lulu's poor throat!

Did I like the book? Kind of. Honestly, while listening to Amy's ideas was interesting, sometimes (ahem, most of the time) she came off as incredibly arrogant and she got under my skin. She also writes like a professor, not a writer... she uses the same descriptive words throughout, "...by contrast, Western parents..." And, I don't think she even realizes that she was definitely the villan in her own book!

3 Stars
I listened to the audio version of this book
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April 28, 2010

I Will Carry You by Angie Smith

There are some books you probably shouldn't read in public. This is one of them. Not because I was ashamed or embarassed to be seen reading it (quite the opposite, in fact), but because people who saw my face as I read probably wondered what was wrong with the woman reading the book with the baby on the cover.

I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy tells the story of Audrey Caroline Smith, fourth daughter of Angie and Todd Smith (the latter being the lead singer of Selah). Those of you familiar with the blog Bring The Rain already know this story, but this book discusses in even more heart-wrenching detail the journey the Smith go through after discovering through an 18 week ultrasound that sweet Audrey had condidtions which made her "incompatible with life." Choosing to put their trust in the Great Physician, Angie and Todd carried Audrey until her birth on April 7th, 2008 when they got to spend two precious hours with their sweet baby girl.

Despite the fact that I bawled my eyes out for the duration of the novel (even though I already knew the story from Angie's blog), I found such hope in the pages that Angie has created. It is so easy to trust in God when the sun is shining, when all is right with the world and life is good. But God calls us to rely on him, to trust him, and especially to praise Him even in our darkest hours. It is this aspect of the novel that makes it so inspiring and important. The Smiths were in agony, hoping against all hope the the Creator would heal their Audrey. Flawlessly incorporating Scripture, the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and her own blog posts, Angie Smith has produced something incredibly uplifting. Her honesty, sincerity, and passion for the Lord flow out of the pages and directly into the reader's heart.

Thousands of people read Bring the Rain and it's impossible to know just how many have found Christ because of it. Countless others have had their lives changed by Audrey. I can only pray that scores more will find solace, hope, and peace that can only be found in Him through this book. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially mothers, but particularly to those who have suffered the loss of a child. 5 Stars.

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May 11, 2012

Mom Connection by Tracey Bianchi

February 28, 2012

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

April 28, 2010

I Will Carry You by Angie Smith

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