"For years, motherhood as a role has carried wide expectations but little direction on how to do it well. Many moms enter this significant responsibility with few goals and purposes, simply trying to get through each day with as few crises as possible." This statement from Catherine Hickem's book, Regret Free Parenting: Raise Good Kids and Know You're Doing it Right, stood out to me in its truth and honesty.
This book is a great resource for a Godly parenting philosophy. Strong on principles and big ideas, it allows parents (primarily mothers) to examine how they view parenting, what their goals are and to find their true intentions instead of just getting through the day. Peppered with examples from her own life as a therapist/counselor and mother of two adult children, the book is both easy to read and easy to use as a study tool. Each chapter concludes with application questions and a parenting plan is included at the end of the book, with permission to make copies.
I found this book helpful. It aided me in stepping back to examine what I truly want for my children, and also for myself as a mother. The questions were insightful and if I underlined books, I would have underlined quite a few passages. At times, however, I found it difficult to relate the ideas/concepts to my children, ages 2 1/2 and 1; the concepts and/or examples appeared to be geared more towards older children/teens. There weren't practical suggestions but instead big ideas to take in and think about. The application of these ideas relies on the reader to figure out ways to implement them - which is one of Hickem's major points - that we need to trust our intuition and go to the Word and the Lord for answers to our specific problems.
This book is a great resource and one I will keep. I can definitely envision myself pulling it out at different times in the next decades to find the wisdom it contains.
