Regret Free Parenting, by Catherine Hickem, is a faith-based parenting book. Catherine has about 30 years’ experience as a psychotherapist, speaker, and mom, and she is also the founder of Intentional Moms.
At 214 pages, Regret Free Parenting has chapters that focus on building fellowship with our children and trust, being a parent/authority figure, building emotional intelligence, learning the difference between control and intention, and living peacefully during those crazy teen years. At the end of each chapter are questions for you to reflect about your motherhood and some exercises that you can do to develop your role as an intentional mother. Also in the back of the book is a parenting plan that you can work on.
Regret Free Parenting revolves around listening to your kids, watching your kids, and learning about them. Too often we moms get distracted by our busy lives and don’t take the time to truly learn our children’s hearts.
I loved the tip that she gave on page 91 regarding teens and the curfew problem often faced:
When your teens get older, set the alarm for the agreed-upon curfew. They have to get in and turn off the clock before it goes off. If they don’t succeed, they have to pay you a dollar for every minute they’re late or lose a night out per minute. Curfew will be a nonissue with this tactic.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I highly recommend this for parents who’ve struggled with parenting.
I am a member of BookSneeze, a fabulous program through Thomas Nelson. BookSneeze sends members free books to read and keep in exchange for written reviews on a blog and on a major retailer’s website (such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble).
