M Is for Mama: A Rebellion Against Mediocre Motherhood

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Be encouraged that, as you seek the Lord, He has you right where you need to be, doing exactly the right tasks you should be doing. Short story collections seem to be a better fit, and short stories by Neil Gaiman are perhaps the perfect one!

Such a great book on being an excellent “mama” and rebelling against cultures pressure to just be adequate.But the idea that serving your child pizza every night for a week or wearing the same clothes three days in a row (an example from the book) is a mediocre way to show up as a mother and resting in friendships as a way to hear “me too” in the struggles of motherhood as a bad thing is such a toxic and shameful message. While interweaving scripturally-based direction with lively writing and humorous anecdotes, she provides practical advice for the everyday challenges of motherhood. The not-so-good parenting moments she shares are still dressed up enough to not sound THAT bad and still sound good enough to share on the Internet.

I don’t have Instagram so I don’t know Abbie from her online world - but this book reminded me exactly why I wanted to be off of social media and continue to stay off. I really enjoyed this as Abbie Halberstadt gives biblical wisdom on a variety of motherhood topics and how to embrace Christlike Motherhood. I have definitely been on a middle grades fiction kick lately, and more importantly, I have been on a books about autism kick. I was tempted to have this story count towards the "It was a dark and stormy night" but decided to let that go. She has many tips which she always gives a good example from her own life, but fails to talk about any of the science behind her ideas to back it up.Children are a blessing, but I got the impression if you stop having children by choice because of your marriage, finances, or legitimate mental health, that’s just an excuse. And finally- as a self described “lazy mom”- there’s nothing wrong with being mediocre unless your pride tells you there is. Unfortunately the very next "young adult" story was about a thirteen year old boy that wanted to touch his best friend's breasts and "maybe even put [his] hand between her legs.