Review:
I’m not a mom, but I still love Chicken Soup for the Soul for The Multitasking Mom’s Survival Guide. Coming from a mom that once was a nanny, you really do appreciate your mom after reading these heartwarming stories. I really recommend this book to give to your mom for Mother’s Day, a mom who has children or to a new mom to be. Chicken Soup for the Soul as a series and in every subject they touch always find beautiful things to say and to have us readers strength, feel the love, and always have hope. Those who are looking for beautiful stories about women and mothers will love reading this book from start to finish.
Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!
I’m an East Coast girl, having spend almost my whole life in the New York-Connecticut-Massachusetts area, but I’ve lived in Brazil and traveled all over the world, including in a lot of Third World countries. It really makes you understand how lucky you are. I think all that travel, combined with reading stories from thousands of people who face great challenges, makes me feel fortunate every day to have a nice house, a job, heat and hot water, food on the table, and healthy, happy kids. I try to infuse all the Chicken Soup for the Soul books with that positive attitude – that no matter what, we should count our blessings.
Tell us about your book? How did it get started?
I got the idea for Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Multitasking Mom’s Survival Guide a year ago, when I was thinking about what we could for our readers to help them with their busy lives. I realized that we were seeing stories from many moms who seemed to have very rich, active lives, who were somehow making it through each day while they were juggling a million different things.
When I mentioned the book idea to our editors, they went crazy and everyone volunteered to work on this title! We all wrote stories for the book and we had a great time. It got me thinking about all the neat tips I picked up over the years raising my kids, and how often other mothers told me these tips really helped them.
What inspired you to write about what you discovered?
I started having kids a couple of years before my friends and then over the years I’ve had many friends younger than me, so I’ve had lots of opportunities to pass along my own tips and experiences with raising children. And I’ve been gratified by the response I’ve gotten from my friends – so many have told me that one of my tips has changed their lives, the way they’re raising their kids, their relationship with their kids. It’s simple things, like telling a mother of teens not to take the kids’ bad behavior personally – they’re not doing it TO YOU. It’s not about you!
So I wrote up several of my best tips for this book, and then collected thousands of stories from other moms, narrowing them down to a final 101 for inclusion in the book – the cream of the crop! And I think we created a treasure trove of stories that will help moms of all ages, with kids of all ages, to feel like they are part of a larger community of moms who want to help them.
What do you like to read?
I am a voracious reader… and an audiobook listener too. I can never read enough, so I also listen to audiobooks as I’m driving around. I usually have at least one book underway, plus an audiobook, plus a two-foot high stack of magazines. I love historical fiction, women’s fiction, spy novels, mysteries. My parents didn’t let me watch TV when I was a kid, so I found my entertainment in books, and that has never stopped. I was always a writer too – I’d write short stories for fun when I was a kid, when other girls were playing with dolls.
What would your advice to be for others seeking what you achieved?
I think that we all have great stories inside us, and we can all tell those stories if we let ourselves. If you want to write, or at least tell your stories, to entertain or inspire others, just start writing. Ninety percent of your success is in just getting it on paper. Just let it out – knowing that it doesn’t have to be perfect. You can go back later and edit it. We get stories all the time from people who have a great story to tell, and perhaps are not the world’s greatest writers, but we go in and edit those stories and work with those writers so they can get published.
