Single Parents Books

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

Anne Lamott

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Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Parenting -> Babies & Toddlers -> Infants
Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Parenting -> Child Care

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 152 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Whiny and Negative 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is about an extremely emotionally ill women, who has spent her entire life avoiding reality with coke, meth, and alcohol, who now sober at 35 gets knocked up by one of the random men she is sleeping with. (She apparently is too hippie for condoms.)
Maybe it's because I don't have kids, but I find a mother doing nothing but go on and on and on about her kids every movement very monotonous and boring. Not only is that what she writes about in this book, but she is extremely negative, cynical and it's annoying.

Editorial Review:

The most honest, wildly enjoyable book written about motherhood is surely Anne Lamott's account of her son Sam's first year. A gifted writer and teacher, Lamott (Crooked Little Heart) is a single mother and ex-alcoholic with a pleasingly warped social circle and a remarkably tolerant religion to lean on. She responds to the changes, exhaustion, and love Sam brings with aplomb or outright insanity. The book rocks from hilarious to unbearably poignant when Sam's burgeoning life is played out against a very close friend's illness. No saccharine paean to becoming a parent, this touches on the rage and befuddlement that dog sweeter emotions during this sea change in one's life.

Joint Custody with a Jerk: Raising a Child with an Uncooperative Ex, A Hands on, practical guide to coping with custody issues that arise with an uncooperative ex-spouse

Julie A. Ross, Judy Corcoran

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Flash In The Pan 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Each piece of advice worked the first time. I think it was because I was breaking the old patterns when I responded and she was caught off guard. By the next time we communicated she had a new way to shut me down. I stuck to the plan for a month, then gave it up. I would have needed to go to counseling after every confrontation. She has the ability to mutate faster than a super virus. I was amused but not helped by Joint Custody With a Jerk.

Editorial Review:

Parenting is difficult enough in a family where the two parents love and respect each other. In divorce, where the respect has diminished and the love has often turned into intense dislike, co-parenting cane drive on or both parents to the brink of insanity. Joint Custody with a Jerk offers many proven communication techniques that will help you deal with your difficult ex-husband or ex-wife by describing examples of common problems and teaching you to examine your role in these sticky situations. These strategies for effective mediation are easy to apply, down-to-earth, and innovative.

Choosing Single Motherhood: The Thinking Woman's Guide

Mikki Morrissette

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Houghton Mifflin Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $6.90

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The comprehensive guide for single women interested in proactively becoming and being a mother—includes the essential tools needed to decide whether to take this step, information on how best to follow through, and insight about answering the child's questions and needs over time.

Choosing Single Motherhood, written by a longtime journalist and Choice Mother (a woman who chooses to conceive or adopt without a life partner), will become the indispensable tool for women looking for both support and insight. Based on extensive up-to-date research, advice from child experts and family therapists, as well as interviews with more than one hundred single women, this book explores

• common questions and concerns of women facing this decision, including: Can I afford to do this? Should I wait longer to see if life turns a new corner? How do Choice Mothers handle the stress of solo parenting?
• what the research says about growing up in a single-parent household
• how to answer a child's "daddy" questions
• the facts about adoption, anonymous donor insemination, and finding a known donor
• how the children of pioneering Choice Mothers feel about their lives

Written in a lively style that never sugarcoats or sweeps problems under the rug, Choosing Single Motherhood covers the topic clearly, concisely, and with a great deal of heart.

Single Mothers by Choice: A Guidebook for Single Women Who Are Considering or Have Chosen Motherhood

Jane Mattes

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 66 new & used starting at $2.38

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Christians look elsewhere 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 22 people found this review helpful.

I had been considering single motherhood and got this to understand what I might have been getting myself into. It was difficult enough trying to read a worldly perspective on a serious matter without the author bending over backward trying to justify her own decision. She really needs to get her heart right with God. She even went as far as finding some very questionable study that claimed single mothers had less stress than those in a married relationship. After reading that, I was unable to read the book again. It's that biased and ridiculously not a fair evaluation of single motherhood. And while the author does include unstable women involved in multiple and/or serial-"monogomous" relationships within the book, I don't see that as healthy or beneficial to anyone - mother, child, or the men. If that's what membership into Single Mothers by Choice is like, I really don't want a part of it. Buyer be warned!

Editorial Review:

The first handbook for the paoidly growing number of American women choosing single motherhood, written by the director of the national organization, Single Mothers by Choice.

Raising Great Kids on Your Own: A Guide and Companion for Every Single Parent

David Frisbie, Lisa Frisbie

Amazon Price: $10.39 List Price: $12.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvest House Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $7.56

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

I Wish I'd Had This Twelve Years Ago... 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

When my divorce was final 12 years ago, I was left to raise two sons. I felt hopeless and alone (although people reached out to me) and I certainly felt unable to raise two boys. My sons are teens now. "Raising Great Kids" has some of the wisest parenting insights I've found anywhere, for kids of any age but especially for parents of teens or pre-teens. Wow. I wish I'd had this book twelve years ago, but I'm glad I found it now.

Barbara Sheldon, M.S.W.
Currently reading: The Maytrees: A Novel

Editorial Review:

One–parent households frame the new landscape of American family life. But raising kids alone is hard work, and single parenting is a struggle for most. David and Lisa Frisbie provide a practical and proactive plan single moms or single dads can use to...

• nourish their own souls, maintaining a vibrant faith in God and a vital connection to family and friends
• nurture their children, empowering kids to successfully process the trauma of divorce
• manage their households as they assume roles and tasks that may lie well outside their comfort zone
• build a future they can enjoy, making choices about education, careers, finances, and relationships

The Frisbies’ constant travel and ongoing counseling ministry provide a rich reservoir of effective strategies and ideas. Moms and dads who parent alone will find confidence and hope from this manageable and optimistic approach.

Choosing You: Deciding to Have a Baby on My Own

Alexandra Soiseth

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Compelling honesty 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This fascinating and painfully honest book takes you on a journey with one brave woman as she "chooses" her child. As she tackles head-on the thorny problems surrounding such a choice ("googling for sperm"!) the reader goes with her. It's for everyone who wants children, who has children, who has decided against having children because the soul-searching and practical implications touch us all - men included. Highly recommended!

Editorial Review:

All her adult life, Alexandra Soiseth has wanted a husband, children, dogs and cats—a busy, loving, home. But at thirty-nine, with no husband on the horizon, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

She googles for sperm.

Choosing You is Alexandra's memoir. With humor and heart, she shares the often gut-wrenching reality she faces in having a baby on her own—a mother and father who disapprove, friends who think she's crazy, a society that thinks she's selfish. But it is her struggle with weight and self image, possible infertility, and the terror of bringing a child into this world without a father that almost stops her from getting what she wants most—a family.

Alexandra's story shows us all that with a little guts, a lot of love, and the internet, almost anything is possible.

Holding Her Head High: 12 Single Mothers Who Championed Their Children and Changed History

Janine Turner

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> Women's Issues

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Life lessons from single mothers throughout history form the inspiration for single mothers today.

Single moms are not just a product of our modern culture. There have been single mothers throughout history, women who have raised not only their children but also nations with a higher vision for life. Holding Her Head High recounts stories of twelve such women from the third to the twenty-first centuries, women who found ways to twist their fates to represent God's destiny for their lives.

These uniquely powerful, brave women, within the scope of their own world and times, are like the ninety-nine percent of single mothers today who never intended to carry that distinction. They are abandoned, widowed, or divorced, all carrying wounds, yet they also all found ways to exhibit courage, kindness, dignity, and faith to heal themselves by healing others.

Actress Janine Turner, herself a single mother, describes the social implications for women and children from the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages to Pioneer days, including a single mother of slavery. Stories from women like Rachel Lavein Fawcett, abandoned single mother of Alexander Hamilton; Abagail Adams, a wartime widow; Harriet Jacobs, an unwed mother of slavery whose autobiography was published the year the Civil War began; and widowed Belva Lockwood, the first woman to officially run for President, all carrying wounds but all offering insight, wisdom, and encouragement. Lessons include:

• Listen for God's higher calling
• Hold your head high
• Dare to dream
• Champion your children
• Heal with humor
• Don't Give Up Before the Miracle

Family Rules: Helping Stepfamilies and Single Parents Build Happy Homes

Jeannette Lofas

Amazon Price: $12.00 List Price: $12.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Kensington Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $5.52

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Practical, realistic, and in the "Top Tier"! 5 out of 5 stars.
28 of 29 people found this review helpful.

As a new stepmother, I've read close to 20 books on stepfamilies, countless books on marriage, and quite a number on parenting. (Can you tell I'm a teacher?) This is one of my favorites, largely because it diverges from the standard "psychology and philosophy" to emphasize the nitty-gritty, practical daily realities of sharing life and household space with children, particularly children who aren't biologically your own.

Having taught 7th grade and become a pretty vocal fan of clear expectations and consequences, I found I agree with the vast majority of Ms. Lofas' "rules". She has a desperately-needed perspective that benevolent adults are supposed to be in charge of the family, and offers countless practical steps to accomplish things such as: dinnertime rituals, chores, bathroom habits, bedtime customs, manners, adults' bedroom privacy, showing gratitude, tone of voice in communication, not accepting excuses, etc.

Much of these are exactly the issues that have come up in conversation and required some resolution in our new family. (I genuinely believe this is a helpful book even for families that don't have the added layer of complexity that stepfamilies encounter.) These guidelines are designed to ensure respect, order, and healthy boundaries within families; and to develop responsible character in children. This is one of the few books that I am campaigning loudly for my husband to please read before the children come to live with us.

Editorial Review:

Would you like to create a well-run family team where you are the leader? Would you like to come home to a house where everyone says "please" and "thank you," shares housework and enjoys dinner together? Do you long for a homelife where children feel loved and cared for and you feel respected and in control?

The Secret is in Family Rules---straightforward, no-nonsense principles and essential solutions for making house rules work.

Single Parenting That Works: Six Keys to Raising Happy, Healthy Children in a Single-Parent Home

Kevin Leman

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tyndale House Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $7.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Being a parent is challenging enough. Being a single parent can seem downright impossible--until now. Drawing on material from his successful Single Parenting That Works curriculum guide and video series, America's favorite parenting expert, Dr. Kevin Leman, brings help and hope to the legions of single parents struggling to raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted children in a loving, caring and biblically grounded way. Using his trademark quirky, no-nonsense approach, Dr. Leman shows parents how to build healthy, mature relationships with their former spouses, how to develop their children's self-esteem, and how to discipline and relate to their kids in accordance with their unique God-given personalities.

Features:

• Building stability for your children by getting your own life in order.
• How forgiveness opens the door to healthy relationships
• Learning to deal with your "ex" with an olive branch rather than a hammer
• Dating and remarriage
• Helping your child thrive in a single parent home

My Single Mom Life: Stories and Practical Lessons for Your Journey

Angela Thomas

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

missing something- reality check 2 out of 5 stars.
14 of 21 people found this review helpful.

After reading this book, I continued to struggle with the familiar nagging at my heart and the ache in my stomach, which speak more honestly to me about the realities of single motherhood. While I respect and appreciated many things that this author described about her own experience as a single mother, the heavy emphasis on religion, the reliance on a masculine form of divinity and the reference to the constant craving for a "hunky" male partner, particularly towards the end, left me feeling like this book was directed primarily at the white, high heeled, manicured, primarily Christian raised, middle class lifestyle type of mother. It spoke largely of this one woman's experience with the hopes that some of it might help other women, likely in similar circumstances. None of the descriptions of this book, nor the on line reviews identify the heavy extent to which the theme of religion, a male God, church, etc. are woven into the chapters. If something in this book resonates for white middle class women, great, the book is a success. But there remain thousands of women who do not fit in this group. Some of the serious issues that are often part of single mother hood and need real solutions, real acknowledgement, seem to be minimized or ignored. Dealing with abusive ex partners who remain involved in the children's lives, dealing with the emotional upheaval of depression, experiences of anxiety, trying to secure medical care for oneself and ones children, trying to find and get to therapy or good counselling, legal costs, not dating for years, not dating at all, having to manage house hold repairs, sick children, a full time job, shift work, all of these things alone....they just aren't dealt with adequately. The isolation of living in a smaller community, and not jetting off to other cities and countries, the lack of family resources and few reliable men who have time to mentor a son....they are realities for many many women. This book falls short for these women. The end of the book was disappointing...the reference to the fantasy of the dreamy man that is pined for and waited for, the end goal.......the hope for this dream to come true.....it promotes the message that a woman is not whole or enough without a man....that the goal is eventually to be with a man. This book seemed like an outpouring of one woman's story, and perhaps that was in itself therapeutic for the author. But for the other women out there who are also raising amazing children and get through the day with incredible integrity, courage and strength, women out there who don't have a personal assistant, don't jet off to big cities or other countries and do workshops or talks, don't have people stop them and tell them "you are beautiful",or "you know why we all love you", haven't dated for years, this book will feel alienating and out of touch with their reality and those "practical" challenges. Potential readers and purchasers of this book should at the very least be aware of this ahead of time.

Editorial Review:

The day Angela Thomas sold the only thing she had, the diamond from her engagement ring, to take care of her kids was the day she began to believe they were going to make it. In that decision, the faith she had always talked about became the faith she was going to learn how to live. In the years since, God has given Angela a passionate desire . . . to live an amazing life, even while raising four kids as a single mom. In this book she shares her hard-earned wisdom on loneliness, dating, finances, and parenting, encouraging every solo mom. "As a gift to our children," she says, "we can become healthy moms who are strong and amazing women in spite of our circumstances."