Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: And 8 Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt
Leslie Fields
Published By: WaterBrook Press
Book Category: Non-Fiction, Family & Relationships
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Reviewed by Jamie Driggers
We’ve all heard them, those catchphrases that are supposed to make us feel better or encourage us on toward excellence. “Parenting is your highest calling.” “You represent Jesus to your kids.” And they work for a while. Right up until your baby pours grape juice on your mother-in-law’s white carpeting while your preschooler smarts off to you and you LOSE IT. AGAIN. Parenting is hard. Darn hard. And no one person has the perfect solution to every parenting problem, no matter the letters after their name that signify their brilliance. So why do we continue to subject ourselves to the methods and catchphrases that leave us more guilty than we started?
In Parenting Is Your Highest Calling, Leslie Leyland Fields walks us through eight of the myths that, as the title says, trap us in worry and guilt. What are these monsters? Why do we believe them? And, is there anything that can be done to be rid of the pressure of unrealistic expectations that they keep us under?
This book has been absolutely liberating. I’ve spent more years than I’d like to admit trying to be the parent I think I’m expected to be, and failing, because it isn’t who I was created to be. People can throw pretty words together, drop in the words “calling,” “God,” or “Jesus” and sound convincing. But Leslie dissects the pretty words and really gets to the heart of the matter. When we buy into the myths, we elevate ourselves or our children to a status belonging to God alone. This book has freed me up to put God back in his proper place and feel confident enough in my parenting to just be. Not to give up. Not to give in. But to be the parent I was meant to be without all the added stresses of methods and catchphrases. Thank you, Leslie. Thank you.
Armchair Interviews says: This is an excellent resource for the parent who is tired of the pre-prescribed parenting mold.
Author’s Web site: http://www.Leslie-Leyland-Fields.com