Honest as a Mother 2

Personal Essays That Will Make You Feel Like You Are Not Alone in Motherhood

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177

PAGES

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17

CHAPTERS

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#1

Bestseller

STEFANIE FERNANDES

What you can expect

Parenting is part of our humanity. Every single person on this Earth has experience in either parenting or being parented. That also means that everyone seems to be an expert in raising children, or at least, they like to think so! I am certain that you have been on the receiving end of unsolicited advice since becoming a mother and probably even during pregnancy.

Healthy, Scary Boundaries Are Not Dangerous

By telling you my story about how I found my personal boundaries that sup- port my mental health and underpin my parenting, my aim is to provoke a discussion and create awareness. I am talking here about my own per- sonal experience, about seeing my experiences and making sense of them through my lens of reality. This is my take on healthy and necessary bound- aries, and it might differ from how you see it.

Chapter overview

I am joined by 16 other authors who share their personal stories about motherhood

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Aline Padfield

How my childhood influenced my life choices, pregnancy, becoming a mom, and other lessons along the way.

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Ann Marie Hemmings

Being a single parent with an inherent drive to never give up, even when on the downside of opportunity.

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Ashley Treavajo

Women are expected to work like they don’t have children, but raise their children as if they don’t have a career.

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Beverley Biggs

Being a perfect mom doesn’t make you a good mom. Trying to be a Supermom is next to impossible—but you can still have the cape!

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Brittany Baylis

It is when we are down that we discover what we are capable of. It is not the easy days that build us into what we desire to be but the challenges that enable us to get there.

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Christie Rocha

When we do for ourselves, we do for our kids. My growth and empowerment is their growth and empowerment. I am your evidence.

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Elisha Zavier

I was diagnosed with ADD as a kid in the ‘90s where neurodiversity was celebrated with medication, labels, and stigmas.

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Jessica Merry

Eating disorder, fertility treatments and miscarriages and: Finally, all the struggles were worth it!

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Katie Wicik

This is my journey through motherhood and how I came upon par- enting 2.0 after almost two decades of being a parent.

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Michele Harrison-Faulkner

I believe that the experience of being a stepparent is directly influenced by the relationship the biological parents have and also how the other biological parent thinks of you.

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Rebecca Rectorik

I never wanted to be a mother. I was, in fact, vehemently against it. But the truth is, I didn’t think I could be a mother; I didn’t think I SHOULD be a mother.

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Rosanna Spadafora

When I gave birth to my beautiful boy, and what started to unfold was unlike anything I read, unlike anything I saw, and unlike anything I have ever felt

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Stefanie Fernandes

How I started to develop healthy, and often scary boundaries to protect my mental health the relationship I have with my children.

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Stephanie Giles

I am telling you about my postpartum journey and the multiple surgeries that went along with it. This is a quick overview of what happened to me after the birth of my son.

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Tobie Karst

We’re going to talk about postpartum depression, a failed marriage, loss of a parent, the hardships of the journey, and how I have continued to overcome it all.

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Ursula Erasmus

I already knew when I reached my sweet sixteen that I would get married and have kids. The expectation was clear; the adoption, almost universal.

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Vanessa Da Ponte

If I had to use one word to describe 2020, that would be it. Survival. The year 2020 was the beginning of my journey into motherhood.

TEASER READING

How I discovered a way to set and enforce healthy boundaries

A Journey Through Personal Essays

Discover Connection and Empathy in Parenthood

If you've ever experienced the challenges of parenting in solitude, this book was crafted with you in mind. Motherhood, while profoundly rewarding, can be a journey filled with hurdles. Within the pages of these personal essays, you'll discover not only relatable aspects of your own experience but also a deeper understanding and compassion for those whose paths may differ from your own.

Stefanie Fernandes - 2023