Surrendering to Motherhood
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Surrendering To Motherhood – Losing Your Mind, Finding Your Soul is a life-changing book that send a message to the author’s own generation of women programmed to “have it all,” great jobs and great families.
As her provocative and passionate book unfolds, Krasnow shows readers through personal experiences and powerful ancedotes the importance of streamlining big careers, so they can savor this moment while their children are young and growing. Her underlying message is this: The fleeing moment of childhood is over in a fingersnap, so don’t miss that magical time.
“We can always go back to our big jobs; we can never go back to the times when our children were young and needy. Soon, too soon, your cuddly babies will be stubble-faced teenagers going off to college. So be there, now, as much as you can,” writes Krasnow, formerly the national feature writer for United Press International.
Now an author and professor in the School of Communications at American University, Krasnow left her job in daily journalism when, at the age of 39, she gave birth to twins and she and her husband were suddenly parents of four sons, ages three and under. Her children captured her, forcing her to, happily, climb down the ladder into her messy kitchen and living room As she writes: “Having small kids is like the last day of summer vacation, when you are savoring ever second coming at you, when you merge with that wonderful, intense, central part of Being — the sun on your face, the sand at your feet. My children finally forced me to stop, to be present in the present, and to be happy at that destination. Immersed in the glory of my kids, I abandoned the relentless desire to climb higher and higher.”
This books shows others how to surrender to what Krasnow calls “the spectacular cacophony” of our kids.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freelance journalist Krasnow spent her youth cavorting with California hippies and seeking enlightenment through mediocre relationships, and later as a UPI correspondent. Married in her early 30s, she delves into motherhood in a big way--four children in five years, including twins--but is taken by surprise when her ability to juggle the roles of writer, mother and wife begins to wane. She realizes something has to give, and that something is work. For a long time Krasnow resisted the idea that being a full-time mom was as valid a life choice as being a hot-shot journalist. She eventually finds Zen-like tranquillity in overturned plates of scrambled eggs and hair caked with peanut butter. Her journey also leads her back to her Jewish roots with a new-found appreciation for her Holocaust-surviving mother. Krasnow's architect husband remains in the background, and readers are left to marvel at mom's adept handling of her four "wriggly little boys" nearly single-handedly during daytime hours. The book, which grew out of an essay published in the Washington Post in 1994, is full of elementary feminism, but the author's message to working mothers--be there for your kids while they're young--seems as sound coming from her as it probably did the first time you heard it.