The Passionate Mom: Dare to Parent in Today's World
By Susan Merrill



There are so many times when I start my day off full of hope and energy to be intentional and passionate about engaging with my kids in order to teach them and give them wonderful memories. Then, sometimes by eight in the morning, everything just turns around and I am discouraged and "done" with the day. And although this is a dumb excuse, many times I get overwhelmed by the expectations of society today and mess up my original plan to be intentional and passionate.

You know - I want my kids to have calmly listened to me as we discuss our plan for the day so they are aware of the plan, but they are just running around screaming to get outside and play.  Or I plan out specific color sheets that focus on one letter so that while they color we can practice what the letter "K" sounds like - but no one wants to actually color. Nope rolling the crayons across the table in a race is on their agenda.  And instead of staying calm and going with it, I slowly start to feel like I'm failing because my kids aren't doing what they are supposed to do. I think to myself that so-and-so's kid would never do this, or if so-and-so saw how incapable I am of keeping my kids calm for ten minutes she would never have playdates with us.


Granted, writing this now, I know this sounds crazy. But in those moments... oh, in those moments...

With these times in mind, I snatched up my chance to review The Passionate Mom because the short summary includes this question about mom thoughts, "How can I know for certain that I am doing this right?"  And I think that if  I knew the answer to that question I wouldn't get so discouraged when life gets in the mix of my expectation.

Merrill goes through the story of Nehemiah  as the inspiration for becoming a passionate mom who is building a wall to keep her kids safe while being the gatekeepers of the world for them. She does a marvelous job of showing how Nehemiah's passion for his people and ensuring their safety echoes the passion so many moms have for their children.

She outlines the concept of building a wall to protect your children by discussing her ten Ps: Perception, pondering, passion, prayer, patience, preparation, purpose, planning, problem solving and perseverance.

Along the way she shares her struggles as a mom, which is always encouraging for me to hear about. It is so easy to put moms who are speaking out on a false pedestal because they seem so smart (of course they do, they have a group of editors to smooth out the rough edges!). These little glimpses into the areas Merrill struggles with were nice.

The biggest point I loved about this book was that Merrill clearly defined the terms she used throughout the book. Anymore, so many words have multiple definitions, and each one is slightly different. So by stating a specific definition I was immediately on the same page as Merrill as she laid out each new "brick" to put in the wall.

Another great part of the book is that Merrill fills it with little lines that are full of encouragement for moms. Granted her words of encouragement have the truth that moms need to hear, and that can be hard to swallow sometimes, but is so essential. My personal favorite: "Pondering takes selflessness, and selflessness takes self-control." (Tweet this)

The only part that was a little hard to take, but expected, is how often Merrill "sells" her blog and iMOM business. This book obviously was written in an effort to promote Merrill's ventures. I don't blame her, as this is a great plan to promote, and the book is extremely well written and put together. But still, I found it a little too much of a promotion.

Otherwise, I don't have any issues with this book. In fact I do feel that any mom who is asking questions about how to stay passionate about being a mom in the day-to-day of life, this is a book you need to read.

Reading List Rating:




Have you read The Passionate Mom? Do you follow Merrill's blog? iMom? What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.










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**I received a copy of this book for review from BookSneeze, all opinions are 100% my own.