Parenting with Purpose {Book Review}

I’ve been a parent for 13 years. Did you hear me.. 13 YEARS!??! Wow, that’s a long time. I remember holding my newborn daughter (well, all of them for that matter) and thinking she was so tiny, sweet, angelic, and perfect! I wanted to keep her (all of them) that way forever. Of course that didn’t happen, she grew, and with each stage of life I was in awe once more. I often hear, “You have a 13 year old, good luck!” Luck? What is this luck for? Do you mean good love? I love my kid, I love her wit, and yes, she may not be as angelic with her  touch of sass appearing every now and then, but that doesn’t mean I need luck.  What I need is love, work, and patience. I need to remember that as much as I want respect, I need to give respect. It’s easy for us as parents to forget that sometimes. I can honestly say, sometimes, unintentionally I’m snotty. I admit it, I can be a snotty Mommy. I need to halt that behavior in myself, because let’s be honest: what I do, they do. Our babies are mirrors of us reflecting back on us, we need to say and do the things we want them to see and do. ANNNND that’s why I love Nina Garcia’s blog: Sleeping Should Be Easy, she speaks about parenting, she uses real life examples (usually from her own life with her three children), she’s a straight forward–no jargon, and her parenting style seems quite similar to mine.

With so many wisdom nuggets throughout her blog, it makes perfect sense to me that Nina would write a book to share her parenting tips. Again, I’m not new to parenting, but I’m also not too old or set in my ways to see where I could readjust my parenting style. While reading Nina’s book Parenting with Purpose: How to Raise Well-Behaved Children and Build a Strong Parent-Child Relationship, I found myself shaking my head in agreement with so many of Nina’s words, “Yes, I do that!” but then there were a few things that made me think “Uh oh… I need to fix that.”

I do not read parenting books. I visit a few parenting blogs and if I see a good article in a magazine on parenting, I read it. I haven’t picked up a parenting book in Y E A R S, but this book seemed different it was inviting and it made perfect sense!

Nina is not a doctor, psychologist, or child therapist, she’s a mom. Sometimes the best advice, in my opinion, comes from other mothers. I totally would listen to a doctor, psychologist, or child therapist, but only if they weren’t trying to do a one-size-fits-all approach or straight from some medical book that was published decades ago, you feel me? Nina reiterates throughout the book that parenting is NOT one-size-fits-all, and that makes me happy! Why, happy? Because I have three kids, and I know that I cannot parent them the same, so it’s nice to see that others get it.

I also really enjoyed the positivity factor that is sprinkled throughout this book. If you know anything about me, you know that I TRY to keep it positive. One of the reasons I pulled my littles  my younger two children out of school last year to homeschool was because of the LACK of positivity in their learning environment. I wanted to provide my children with an encouraging, loving, and happy learning environment and I did that. (They are currently enrolled in a new school in a different state, this school thus far is wonderful: happy, positive, and encouraging.)

I could honestly keep going on and on, but you should READ THE BOOK!!

*I was given a copy of Parenting with Purpose: How to Raise Well-Behaved Children and Build a Strong Parent-Child Relationship for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are my own, you know this to be true. 😉

Since we’re on the topic of parenting, what about us Moms? Self care is so important too! Sometimes we forget about ourselves, mothering is about others, but we need to remember US. My friend Bev has put together a workbook to get you inspired to create, which is a wonderful form of self care, truly it is. The Busy Mom’s Guide to Creativity is a book I needed during what I call my gray period, creativity helped pull me out. The workbook has interviews, 7 art prints with inspirational creativity quotes, tons of tips, and if you love me… I’m in there too. 🙂 Seriously, this is a wonderful and thoughtful book written by a mama who inspired and creates every day.