Just Ordinary Moms Tell it Like it is

I produce and host a one-hour television show called Creating Cooperative Kids.  The show airs on many public access channels and helps parents and teachers with challenging behavior issues for raising cooperative and resilient children and teens.

On a recent episode I featured a group of moms from Connecticut who all co-authored and self-published the book Just Ordinary Moms: True Stories by Moms for Moms in May of 2013.  You’ll find it on Amazon for sure. The book is filled with true stories of motherhood are addicting, entertaining, and heart-warming - you can't read just one! 

Motherhood is wonderful, most of the time ~ except when difficult things happen, such as your teenage boy doesn't come home, your daughter is caught with her pants down or text messages lead to terrible truths.

The book is also contains sixteen stories, two poems, plus a final haunting story that literally (as they indicated) washed up onto the beach sands of Cape Cod and will make you laugh, cry, and best of all, illustrate the fact that moms are not alone on this extraordinary journey called motherhood. Better yet, a portion of all proceeds goes to charities to benefit women and children.

I was fortunate to have been able to interview five of the women who wrote this book to learn more about why they wrote it.  Of the original eight, Robin Cournoyer, Jeanne Lebens, Celia Rose, Linda Spevacek and Maureen Wolf joined me on the set of my show to discuss the book, parenting and mom-sense.  I also took the liberty to ask them to comment on a few questions that came into my email box from other moms seeking help.

My favorite of all the stories begins on page 93 and it’s titled Just an Ordinary Day.  I won’t spoil this one story for you, but it had me laughing at a couple of points.  The first was when 3-year-old Robert declares to his mother that he had an explosion in his pants.  His mom first assumed that it was an accident that she would have to clean up and she attempted to blame it on gas.  But what he showed her was NOT what she had expected.

Another incident in this one story that also involved Robert had the parents searching for their missing child late at night, in the woods.  This hit home for me because it happened several times to one of my children; searching in a huge panic for a little girl who we thought was lost!  But thanks to a neighbor, the child in this real-life story was found within the walls of their home.  You’ll have to read the book to find out what happened and why.

The moms and authors of Just Ordinary Moms, tell me that they are working on several other editions of this book that will include new stories submitted by parents; both moms AND dads.  If you have a story worth telling that reveals the struggles and the joy of parenthood, you may want to consider sending them your story to be considered for inclusion in a future edition.  Send them your story in an email to authors@justordinarymoms.com and perhaps yours might be considered.