Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Let's Chat: It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village

I'll start off the chatting about this one even though I wrote a little about it on my own blog. I guess we should be discussing it here, too, though! :) Feel free to add your own posts after reading mine! I'd love to see how everyone else feels. Especially if you are older/younger than me or have more/less children. It would be interesting to see how those things affects your perspective on this topic. Do you feel as strongly as she does?? Do you agree with the things she says? etc...

I LOVED this book and felt like it should be required reading for all stay at home moms. You know we are all just trying to make the world a better place by raising good kids who will turn into good adults. I felt like Colleen Down understands how important the role of a mother is without being "preachy" and making us feel guilty because we are not perfect at it. Sometime we get caught up in being perfect that we forget that it's not about that...I felt like she put raising kids into perspective--you need to not lose yourself completely, you need to have fun, let things roll off your back, and you need to dig in your heels on the things that matter. I laughed a lot, I cried some, and I recommended this book to LOTS and LOTS of the women in my life. I have also thought about this book lots when thinking about things as they are happening in my life. I am personally going to try and read this book once a year so that I can remind myself why I chose the hardest job in the world.

I rated this book a 5 out of 5

Emily: 33yr old mom of 2 boys and 2 girls

4 comments:

Annette said...

I agree with you Emily. I laughed a lot in this book and had a lot of "so true" moments. I am trying to implement the Five Ringer Rule into my life more. I think that's from the "Wells, Tupperware and Prozac" chapter. (which I loved!) Even though I don't have boys I also appreciated her chapter on raising boys and turning them into men. I would much rather be a queen than a feminist! I thought Colleen Down covered all the bases in her book and it was uplifting, inspiring and absolutely delightful. I am going to read it annually too...maybe I'll read some chapters more often...like right after I take Brinley to Target?!! I usually don't underline or write in books but I've marked up my copy of this one so I can refer to my favorite parts often! SO GOOD!!

Annette: 32 yr old mom of 3 girls

Annette said...

By the way, I never did hear what people that about "The Thirteenth Tale"!

JoandDoug said...

Sorry it's taken me awhile to get to commenting about this book. I loved it as well. I also recommended it to every mother in my life and thought she had a whole lot of very sound advice. I also loved the 5 finger rule and thought it made so much sense! I also liked the quote on pg. 130 about balance. I think she made a really good point with that.

Very good choice for the month and if you want to read more on the subject, I think I already recommended "Take 2 Chocolates and Call Me in the Morning" by Emily Watts. It was great too.

Joanna 25 yr old mom of two girlies.

Annette said...

I just realized I wrote "what people THAT about" in my last comment...so much for proof reading my comments!!