Me Before Mom

No one warned me that becoming a mother would make me feel so rudimentary and small. Motherhood is amazing and because it's so amazing every mother should feel whole and blissfully happy. While that sounds like an easy task, many of us find ourselves lost among the dishes, carpools, homework, and family calendar. It doesn't have to be that way. ME BEFORE MOM asks moms to put in the time to find themselves again; stripping off the mom guilt of what motherhood should look like. What Bert Anderson has written is a call for mothers everywhere to focus on themselves, whether it's through finding a new passion, taking care of herself or investing in friendships. Each chapter focuses on a topic: finding your passion, self-care, emotional intimacy, and self assessments. Written in an easy format and with an accompanying journal ME BEFORE MOM is the perfect book for mothers of all ages.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A moving memoir about the legendary author’s relationship with her own mother. Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf Book Club Pick! The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother. For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them. Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights. Praise for Mom & Me & Mom “Mom & Me & Mom is delivered with Angelou’s trademark good humor and fierce optimism. If any resentments linger between these lines, if lives are partially revealed without all the bitter details exposed, well, that is part of Angelou’s forgiving design. As an account of reconciliation, this little book is just revealing enough, and pretty irresistible.”—The Washington Post “Moving . . . a remarkable portrait of two courageous souls.”—People “[The] latest, and most potent, of her serial autobiographies . . . [a] tough-minded, tenderhearted addition to Angelou’s spectacular canon.”—Elle “Mesmerizing . . . Angelou has a way with words that can still dazzle us, and with her mother as a subject, Angelou has a near-perfect muse and mystery woman.”—Essence

In Bert Anderson's book, Me Before Mom: Putting Your Oxygen Mask On First, Anderson ends each chapter with a series of questions designed to help the reader understand and know whom she really is. Now you can get the Me Before Mom journal so you can get the most out of your "me before mom" journey. Beautiful colored graphics with quotes to help moms really focus on finding that balance of motherhood and self. Questions and space to answer the questions. One reader said, "As a child therapist, I will recommend that moms read this book to be able to better provide for the needs of themselves, and ultimately, their children. When moms are happy, everyone's life is better! Bert identifies opportunities for moms to get to know themselves as women, and encourages self-care without the guilt." Buy the accompanying journal to get the most out of your Me Before Mom journey!

I don't know how she does it! is an oft-heard refrain about mothers today. Funnily enough, most moms agree they have no idea how they get it done, or whether they even want the job. Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile spoke to mothers of every stripe--working, stay-at-home, part-time--and found a surprisingly similar trend in their interviews. After enthusing about her lucky life for twenty minutes, a mother would then break down and admit that her child's first word was "Shrek." As one mom put it, "Am I happy? The word that describes me best is challenged." Fresh from the front lines of modern motherhood comes a book that uncovers the guilty secrets of moms today . . . in their own words. I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids diagnoses the craziness and offers real solutions, so that mothers can step out of the madness and learn to love motherhood as much as they love their kids.

Who was your mother before she was a mother? Essays and photos from Brit Bennett, Jennifer Egan, Danzy Senna, Laura Lippman, Jia Tolentino, and many more. In this remarkable collection, New York Times–bestselling novelist Edan Lepucki gathers more than sixty original essays and favorite photographs to explore this question. The daughters in Mothers Before are writers and poets, artists and teachers, and the images and stories they share reveal the lives of women in ways that are vulnerable and true, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always moving. Contributors include: Brit Bennett * Jennine Capó Crucet * Jennifer Egan * Angela Garbes * Annabeth Gish * Alison Roman * Lisa See * Danzy Senna * Dana Spiotta * Lan Samantha Chang * Laura Lippman * Jia Tolentino * Tiffany Nguyen * Charmaine Craig * Maya Ramakrishnan * Eirene Donohue * and many others

A mother tells her own daughter what she was like and what she used to do when she was a little girl.

Introducing two new titles that let kids celebrate Mom and Dad in the best and most personal way—through their own words and pictures! Sweet, lively, and engaging, A Book about Mom with Words and Pictures by Me, and A Book about Dad with Words and Pictures by Me are unique fill-in books that invite kids to be author and illustrator and create a one-of-a-kind gift for Mom and Dad. Every page has a heartwarming, imaginative (and sometimes cheeky!) prompt—a sentence to finish or an illustration to complete—to help kids capture everything they know and love about their parent, from their favorite things to do together to what kind of pizza topping they would be. A sheet of illustrated stickers gives kids even more ways to customize the work! Each book starts with a letter to parent from child, and then the fun begins, from: Your favorite animal is ______. You are terrified of ______! To: I wrote a story about you. Want to read it together? To: Look! I drew a picture of us on an intergalactic space adventure! And finally: This is us, having the greatest adventure ever. I love you, Mom! This is us, doing what we do best. I love you, Dad! The end result? A treasured keepsake of a gift, perfect for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, birthdays, or any special occasion.