One of my favorite memories growing up is of our monthly household-wide Period Party. That’s right, a party devoted to the menstrual happenings of all the women in the house. My mother was a community health nurse who took care of the pregnant teens at whatever school it was to which they sent the girls who, I assumed at the time, had a serious misunderstanding of menstruation. My father was kind of a hippie. (Side note: The day I got home from my first gynecological appointment, my father greeted me at the door, gave me a big hug and said, “So how was it?” And he really wanted an answer.) And my one brother – bless his heart – was pretty much raised as a girl thanks to the estrogenic influences of being bracketed by sisters. So while the monthly bleeding was never “fun” it certainly was occasion for celebration.
My mom, the alpha female of the house and usually the first one of us know to what was coming, initiated the ritual by giving my sister and I $20, the car keys and instructions to come back with something involving chocolate and Brad Pitt. Often, we stopped to pick up some friends along the way until we arrived home with a bag of candy, a couple of movies and entire entourage of ovulating females. It didn’t even occur to me at the time to be embarrassed – I was raised in a household where I got pamphlets of the female reproductive system handed to me over dinners during which we discussed the grossest thing my mom had seen come through the ER at her hospital job – and even now I look back on those times with fondness and amusement. This memory was the first thing that came to mind as I was reading Dara Chadwick’s new book “You’d Be So Pretty If…” about the relationship between mothers and daughters and body image.
Let me start out by saying that if my mother had written this, it would have been a different book entirely. Likewise, if I had written it. And yet every girl out there has a mother. Or is a mother. Or will be a mother. (Okay, now I’m trying to imagine a scenario in which someone would fit none of the above categories. It’s making me very sad.) And that relationship between mothers and daughters is critical to how girls grow into women and learn to love themselves and their bodies. So the topic is one that bears discussion.
Dara – a sometimes commenter on this site and several others in the fitosphere – uses her experience as being the Shape magazine weight loss diarist for a year as a platform to discuss how her dieting and weight loss impacted her newly minted teenage daughter, Faith. Her writing ranges from the poignant (the book’s subtitle is “teaching our daughters to love their bodies – even when we don’t love our own”) to the educational (the book is chock-full of useful stats and resources) to the cringe-worthy (like when she calls her daughter out a family dinner for wanting another roll).
I loved Dara’s willingness to open up about her own body image issues and her roller coaster weight gain/weight loss and prior eating disorder experiences that so many of us can relate to. I also deeply empathized with her desire to not pass on her woes to her child. Here’s my confession: I’ve always been a teeny bit relieved that I have sons. While I know that boys can and do get eating disorders and are still vulnerable to body image problems, it seems that it is far more pervasive in girls. And when you have as many issues as I do… well, sometimes I just think it’s a blessing that I’ve got boys.
She also gives a lot of good tips on how to mitigate the influence of the media, written from the perspective of someone on the inside. For instance, her weight loss goal during her Shape tenure was to reach 125 pounds. By December she was down to 121 – a fact still reported on Shape’s website – but the magazine failed to say that she had just been hospitalized for 3 days with salmonella poisoning, eating nothing but IV fluids. She uses this opportunity to point out not just to Faith, but to all of us, that magazines are not always what they seem.
Dara’s real credibility in the book however comes not from her Shape mag experience but from the fact that she is a mother. A mother who deeply loves her daughter and wants her to succeed and be happy with herself and yet is still trying to figure out those things for herself. In other words, a mother just like the rest of us.
I have to say that I’m curious as to what her daughter Faith thinks of the book. She was just 13 at the time the book was written but sounds like she was already a beautiful, grounded, smart girl. A lot of the book is based around Dara’s interactions with Faith and trying to help her overcome the hurdles of emerging womanhood. Take, for instance, the classic Swimsuit Dilemma. At one point in the book, Faith orders a swimsuit that has boy shorts. She thinks it’s adorable because that’s what her friends wear. Dara, however, has her reservations. Faith has a build, according to her mother, that is fuller through the hips and thighs (“vaulter’s thighs” anyone?) and therefore not well suited for boy shorts. Dara’s motherly instincts are born out when the package arrives and Faith locks herself in the bedroom in tears. Thankfully the moment is saved as Dara takes Faith shopping and helps her find a suit more suited to her figure than her friends’. The incident got me thinking – several teenage girls and even older women are quoted throughout the book, yet Faith’s voice is strangely missing. Perhaps someday she’ll follow in her mother’s footsteps and write her own book?
Whether or not you agree with all of her conclusions, I think this is a great book for generating discussion and for examining the relationships we have with our own mothers and daughters and our responsibility for creating a better body-image legacy for the next generation. I think it would be particularly powerful if read by a mother and a daughter together.
So, do you have a particular image that comes to mind when you think about your mother and body image? Anyone else have period parties??
If you’re interested in reading Dara’s book yourself, I’ve got a copy to give away. Just leave me a comment!
How about a copy to the first commenter of this post? I’d love to read Dara’s book. My daughter is almost 8 and I pray she never feels the way as I did (and still do)about food, weight, and body image.
I never had the privilege of having a period party but I think I just my start!
And congratulations on being pregnant!
I would love to read this book with my eleven year old daughter. She is homeschooled and doesn’t have many girlfriends to form opinions with (there are both pros and cons to this) except for a few cousins she sees on the weekends. She is also very thin(genetics) and eats like its going out of style(but very little junk) and also has issues with her back (diagnosed with excessive kyphosis) and wears a back brace. And, if we didn’t have enough issues to contend with, she just got her period, is in a bit of an estranged relationship with her father (we’re recently divorced) and has a mother who is constantly reading fitness magazines (okay, that last part was mostly positive)! Whoo, now I need a nap.
I’d also love to read this book. I have two daughters, one 16 years old and one 14 years old. Both athletic, both image-conscious, and I’m trying to lose weight. I wonder what messages I’m sending them both aloud and silently.
I’m glad to know about this book!
It sounds like an interesting book, just like the blog is. My husbands constant talk of kids was something that actually motivated me to improve my body image, because I was afraid of passing it onto children. But still, that isn’t always the case, because my Mom is a great role model and I guess I just didn’t listen to her!
No period parties, but my dad had no qualms about going to the store and buying my feminine products. (Although he was a little overwhelmed by the choices: Wings? Ultra-absorbent? Overnight?)
My daughter’s only 5, and tonight she was caught stealing cookies from the stash her therapists use for her behavioral therapy (and is completely unrepentant). But I worry about the messages she will soon begin to receive about her body and her worth.
I’m interested!! No kids yet, but I will need this advice.
Hello! Couldn’t you have lent this book to your sister before you gave it away!
I guess I’ll comment so I can *maybe* win the copy 🙂
Our period parties rocked. I miss those! Why do you live so far away?
Oh, and Dad would be appalled to know you called him a hippie!
That said, watching your struggles and looking at my two beautiful daughters and remembering how lost I was during my teenage years . . .well, I could use some advice. The only thing I know for now is that example is the biggest thing. If I can love my body for what it is and what it can do rather than loath it for what it isn’t, well, that’s a good place to start. I have no idea, though, about how to go about losing weight without passing on the crazy. Maybe staying a few pounds over my “ideal” weight is the best thing I can do for my girls. . .
My Mom was ahead of her time. She never let us have junk food, her line was “we can make something like it at home”. But a home baked carob, fruit juice sweetened glob with nuts was NO where close to being a snickers bar.
But the bad part is both my sister and I turned into junk food bingers. We were denied it so much, it turned into “forbidden fruit” so to speak.
I am trying to strike a better balance with my daughter and sons. Letting them have occasional treats so that it doesn’t become such a big deal. Hope it works!
Hey Charlotte – well, I’m one of those girls who doesn’t have a mother, is not a mother and will never be a mother. But I used to have one. And have recently been discussing her attitude towards my period with my sisters. Cos I think it was a little strange. When I first got mine, I was embarrassed and didn’t know if that’s what was happening (that’s not so unusual, right?). But she got angry when I asked her about it and accused me of lying. Hmmm. Later I have a memory of buying tampons (I would have been in Year 10 or 11 at high school) and trying to work out how to use them – with little success. She found them and got angry and when I told her that I hadn’t been able to use she accused me of lying. Hmmm again. Not a huge surprise that I have very mixed feelings about my body, would prefer that I was plastic like Barbie and have no intention of ever having children. Mothers – please don’t do this to your daughters!! Sounds like a great book but not one that I need – I hope the winner enjoys it!
It’s funny, I was just having a conversation with my therapist the other day on why my body image and eating habits are shaped the way they are.
I have an on-again-off-again eating disorder, and a lot of it comes from the indirect lessons I learned from watching my mother struggle with her own dissatisfaction with her body as I was growing up.
And yet some of my best exercise habits also came from her, and she’s recently reformed to simply eating and behaving as healthily as possible and letting the rest happen as it will.
I’d love to read this book, and even if I don’t end up winning it I’m sure I’ll try to track a copy down somewhere eventually. Thanks for sharing!
Just catching up with blog reading – I have two boys and there are no more on the horizon (definitely) so don’t enter me in the draw, but I just wanted to congratulate you on your pregnancy and say ‘good on you’ for continuing exercising. I never did and really paid for it!
Great review, Charlotte.I cant wait to read the book for a few reasons but the biggest is that right now my daughter is smitten with her body in the way only a three year old can be.
She adores it.
what it does.
how it looks.
I would love to keep her that way..
as someone with ED history all over my family (though thankfully not in myself) and also hoping for a family of my own someday not in the too-far future, i’d love to read this book.
I laughed when I read this post as my family was pretty open about everything, from periods to poop. There was no topic left untouched in my household, and my friends did not believe some of the things that were said at our dinner table…although sadly enough, we never had a party.
I don’t have a daughter… yet. But I am one and after watching my mother nitpick herself and her body for years, I’d like to be more cognizant of the messages that kids pick up on. Body image, in particular!
I would love to read this book! I would consider it preventative medicine 🙂
I would love a copy of the book. It scared me a little, too, to have a daughter someday, and I think reading about other people’s experiences can really help.
This book sounds so interesting. Would love the copy.
Haha, I love that you had official period parties like that : )
While it wasn’t officially that, my sister, my best friend and I would often have our periods at the same time and of course then we would have to go out get some chick flicks and indulge in food. Despite that oftentimes we were all crabby and literally took hours to pick out ONE movie (yes, this really happened several times because we coudln’t agree! haha) I look back and those were some of the best times together : )
No period parties – but my Dad used to break out everytime one of us started our period! Poor guy got a break maybe 1 week a month! And anytime any of us got “weepy” about something – which was often – he would say “are you having your period?” It was so funny, he is the perfect Dad for daughters though! Always sensitive and offers lots of hugs- he makes some awesome fudge too!
When I think of my mother and body image there are 2 distinct memories that come to mind. During the first, I am four years old and my mother has just come home from the hospital with my baby sister. Instead of mentioning how beautiful the baby is, she comments “Do you see how fat this baby made me?”
The 2nd memory is when I am 23, just a few months into therapy for my eating disorder. After a family dinner, I am sitting on the couch, she comes over and pats my stomach and says “Looks like someone is finally getting a little fat on her. I guess I’m skinnier than you now.”
I have no children, but I have two adorable nieces, and a host of younger cousins. I want to be sure that I model healthy behaviors and body image for them. I think this book would be a great read for such an endeavor.
You had a fun mom. Mine was a bit more uptight. She was offended by and would tsk-tsk through tampon commercials. When I had my first period, I was given the pamphlet distributed by the Catholic Church called “You’re a Woman Now”.
On the plus side, she had a very healthy attitude about diet and exercise. When I turned into a chubby teen, she never, ever put me on a diet, she just told me I should skip the dessert tray at school and not take seconds. (Only took 30 years for her advice to kick in.)
One of my earliest childhood memories is exercising in the living room with my mom while watching the Jack LaLanne show.
Ha! Loves it! With 4 females in my house, I’m shocked we didn’t have something like this. However, I’m pretty sure my dad considered moving out/divorce one week out of the month. Poor guy.
My mom was/has been overweight her whole life. She grew up being scolded by her grandmother for being “too chubby.” So, when my mom had 3 daughters herself, she took the OPPOSITE approach; she let us eat whatever we wanted, WHENEver we wanted it. And never a comment was made as to the sleeves of girl scout cookies we would down as a snack.
Ironically, my sister and I both struggled with anorexia/bulimia, and my oldest sister struggles with binge eating. I do NOT at all blame my mom for this, but I do think it’s important to find *that balance*. Obviously you can’t ridicule your child for their eating habits, buuuuut you also shouldn’t let them develop habits such as making cookies just so he/she can eat the bowl of dough (something I may or may not do to this day. ahem).
I too would love to read this book! My family was much more private about these matters (something that I was thankful for back then, but am rather sad about now), and everything related to growing up was always awkward. I don’t want this for my girls! I didn’t get at good example from my mom so maybe from another mom?
At some point growing up (post-high school, I believe), my mom looked at herself and then looked at me and said something to the effect of, “Start exercising now and make it a habit. I wish I had started when I was your age. It’s so much harder when you’re older.”
I took her advice to heart. I started going to the gym, I joined fitness classes, and began running. I think of her words every time I’m doing any of those things.
At some point growing up (post-high school, I believe), my mom looked at herself and then looked at me and said something to the effect of, “Start exercising now and make it a habit. I wish I had started when I was your age. It’s so much harder when you’re older.”
I took her advice to heart. I started going to the gym, I joined fitness classes, and began running. I think of her words every time I’m doing any of those things.
At some point growing up (post-high school, I believe), my mom looked at herself and then looked at me and said something to the effect of, “Start exercising now and make it a habit. I wish I had started when I was your age. It’s so much harder when you’re older.”
I took her advice to heart. I started going to the gym, I joined fitness classes, and began running. I think of her words every time I’m doing any of those things.
Hmmmn. Just spent a weekend bonding with my mother. She never mentioned my shape once.
Had I spent the weekend with my evil sister (as opposed to the nice one) there would have been a Discussion of my body shape. Possibly blood would have been shed, or at least I would have invested in a pair of ear plugs.)
Any books out there about evil sisters?
I’d love to read this book! I had a similar experience with a boyshort bikini when I was about Faith’s age (yup, I have vaulter thighs, too).
My mother spent most of her life repeating endlessly and sadly that I’d been elfin until I hit 8 and then got fat. And stayed fat. So, so sad.
I often think that I might have outgrown the 8 year old chubbiness and gone on to have a more normal body image and size if it had not been an endless, constant, awful issue.
At some point, you have to just get over this stuff and move on, but 40 years later, it still hurts.
So anyway, I applaud Dara. I have only a son, but even for boys, not making an issue about food/weight/appearance is an important thing. He behaves *normally* about food (assuming that I know what that is…), and he’s the only person in my family, male or female, who does. That makes me really happy, because it makes me feel like I did something right.
i find this topic so interesting and it makes me nervous for when i have kids! i’d love to read the book!
Would love to win a copy of this book- love Dara’s writing!
My mum was never concerned with dieting or anything. I grew up in such a healthy environment; we were always super active with plenty of chocolate to go around. Food was something to be enjoyed in our household and to nourish our bodies, rather than something to feel guilty over… I’m still in awe of how well my parents raised my sister and I with really encouraging healthy body image.
Though I don’t want to have kids, I definitely want to help my little baby cousins grow up as healthy and happy women!
Oh to have a mother like yours.
The only “body image” memory I have of my mother is looking at me in a bikini – all 5’2″ of me – all 98# pounds of me – and saying I would have such a nice figure if I only had a waist.
Note: my ribcage sits on my pelvis. I could be 5’2 and 60# -and was- and I would still not have a waist.
I have three boys, and right here on my lap is my eleven day old daughter (I’m nursing and typing one-handed. Go me!).
I so don’t want to screw this little girl up. I’d love to read Dara’s book. I’d also love to get a supernatural infusion of wisdom. Got a giveaway like that coming up?
Both of my parents are dieters. Though they have NEVER said anything negative about my body, I often heard them insult their own. My sister and I both have major body image issues, and it was she who pointed out the connection between our parents attitude toward their bodies and our own. I’m not saying I have bad parents – quite the opposite, but I think I’ll shut my mouth when it comes to hating on my body if I ever have a child.
Period Parties! Genius! My daughter do tend to do movies and chocolate at that time, we just don’t speak of it out loud, which is a little sad now that I think about it.
I have always had body issues, although never had an ED… just hated my body my whole life! Funny, though, about every 4 years I’d look back on pictures of myself and go “wow, I was small” or fit, or whatever… but I would remember at the time thinking “just five more pounds”. Argh.
Now I’m in my 40s and have messed up my endocrine system totally and have gained 25 pounds in the last year and a half even with working out and eating right. So while I am working on healing my body and doing the right things and TRYING to keep the attitude of being fine where I am now while working towards where I want to be… it’s hard.
My daughter is 16 and cute and well-rounded… and still I hear sometimes about “too much ass” and “no waist”. (Deb, I feel your no waist pain it runs in our famiy too. I was so happy when women’s pants started being fit to the hips instead of the waist… do you remember those 80s jeans that went practically up to your boobs? EEEEK!)
Overall my daughter does have a good image, but I see the doubts and the questions … and I wonder sometimes if I’ve contributed to them. Not in any direct way, but maybe just with my own dissatisfaction with me?
Anyway, the book sounds really thought-provoking… I would love to win, but if not Amazon will be hearing from me again (they do love me so.)
Wow – I might just need to read this book with my girls (15 & 16) this summer. I do try to keep my body frustrations from my daughters and stress getting and keeping a healthy body – never a skinny one. I don't recall my mother ever bemoaning weight issues while I was growing up – she was too busy raising 7 of us to care. She did teach me some bad habits that I struggle with like rewarding accomplishments with sweet treats and drowning sorrows with the same. I tend to dive into sweets when I have a bad day (but it never helps) and try really, really hard to not do the same with my girls. It is so instinctual to say "you had a bad day, lets stop for icecream on the way home" or "great job on that test, lets stop for icecream".
To help with images, I have shown my girls several before and after cover shots to show them never to believe what they see so they will understand that they should never strive to look like a cover model – the cover models do not even look like that!
We tease about how so much of my mothering is to not repeat the things that I did not like about my childhood and outwardly wonder what my daughters will try to 'undo' when they become mothers one day.
p.s. Loved the Scarlett Johansson article linked off the author's site. I am personally bothered by the constant weight watch on all celebs.
Wow, that sounds like a great experience growing up – for some reason I was frightened for almost a year to tell my mom I had started bleeding because she was going to make a big deal over it. Just like shaving my legs or plucking my eyebrows. For some reason, I felt shame about these things instead of excitement. I have no idea if that was because of me or because of my family – I think I was just a more private person about personal stuff back then and I didn’t know if my mom was just going to say something horribly embarrassing in public about it. Like she would have been the mother that yelled across the store “Hey Leah, you should probably pick up more tampons for yourself” just as that cute guy was walking by.
As a request to all mothers out there – please do not mortify your children like that. They won’t tell you things that you probably should know if they can’t trust you.
I remember also asking my Dad about sex and he succintly said “Something you do when you’re 20.” So besides the occasional “you’re not having sex are you” comments, subjects about reproductive organs never really came up.
As for body image, they weren’t that great of a help either. If I was skinny, I was told to make sure to not get fat or I’d end up having problems like my mom (she’s yoyo’d between 150 and 200 all my life). When I gained weight, it was like every time I called home or visited it was like “are you going to lose that weight”. It’s a good thing I am pretty oblivious by nature or I might have more issues! 🙂
Your writing is amazing & this book sounds like a must read! My mom was really not the "talk about personal stuff" type so this really interests me. There were 3 girls (& 1 brother & dad) & my mom in our house & I never knew when any of us had our periods & I had to work through alot of the crap myself. Just not talkers about this stuff in my house when I was younger.
When my mom was dying with cancer, I asked her something about myself when I was young.. something there was no way she did not remember since I was on medication for it & even then, she said she did not remember.. she did not want to talk about it.
I think it is really important if you are a mother to start early & be open about talking to your children. I never learned it & even with my 3 stepchildren, I did not do it & have regrets about that.
Would love to win a copy of this. I have 3 grown stepdaughters & 2 of them have 7 grandchildren between the two of them so I could pass this book around!
Thx as always for your insightful writings.
You know, that sounds like a great book. I think our mothers can have an incredible impact on how we see ourselves and how we see others. Win or not, I’m definitely reading this one.
never had anything like a period party myself, but a few girls on the other side of my college dorm floor freshman year did (all-female floor). since i was on birth control for irregular periods (no, seriously!), i never (obviously) synched up with them.
book sounds interesting. don’t remember much body image stuff with my mom growing up but i run into it now in my 20s. i’m trying to eat well, exercise, be healthy and my (perennially overweight, “i have a crappy metabolism”) mom makes comments about it all the time. some overt, some subtle, but all mostly about the fact of why can’t i eat the fatty fried crap that the rest of the family is eating? why do i have to be so difficult?
it sucks.
Yup. We had period parties. With 7 girls and 3 boys in the house, how could you not?!?! My poor brothers knew more about girls than most teenage boys do. But now, their wives are thanking us for it!
I’ve had this on my wishlist for a while. As someone who’s recovered from an ED, I have a fear that a potential daughter/son could pick up some subliminal messages from me in the future. I’d LOVE a copy.
-JenP
I had heard of this book recently (maybe read about it in a review in a magazine?) and would love to read it. My own mother has had an eating disorder her whole life, even through all her pregnancies, living as a string bean surviving on coffee and nicotine. I certainly hope that my own struggles with weight are not passed on to my daughter. She is one of my greatest motivators to eat healthful. Yet I often find myself running to the fridge after I put her to bed, just so I can binge without her seeing it…
What an awesome family you have! Period parties, I can’t even picture it!
I’m very curious about Dara’s book, I suspect it’s great and can’t wait to read it.
I’d love to read the book Charlotte! And congrats on the new baby- YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can remember distinctly the first time my mother ever made a comment about my body.
Girls absorb it all–especially from the women in their family.
All I can say now is that at the time, my mom was working to resolve her lasting issues from not getting the weight off after the 4th child (i was first) and took it out on me–the still very lanky athlete, but beginning to change…..
I can remember, too, the first time I turned around for a shot of my backside in the mirror–only after I became aware of the fact that most women are body conscious. hmmm…..I sometimes wish I had never looked. It’s funny that I’d never even thought about it until the boys in high school made rude jokes about girls with cellulite. Naturally, I had to know if I was included.
Mothers and stupid high school boys–I owe you my insecurities.
I, too, hope to pass on a positive body image to my future daughters.
I have many memories of my mother encouraging me to diet in middle school and high school, which brought a lot of problems on with my self image. I never once heard, “you’re beautiful” from her which I craved to hear. So I stopped eating, lost 60lbs in high school and yet it still didn’t please her. I love my mother very much, but don’t want to ever do that to my daughter. Today I strive to be healthy and be a positive example to my children.
This sounds like an interesting book. I can relate to the anecdotes shared in your blog entry, and I definitely could use some more information about passing on a healthy body image.
I wanna book, I wanna book!!! Does the comment have to be substantive? I sure hope not, I’m not good at those. Something else I guess I should have picked up from mom. She did think all her daughters were beautiful, so gorgeous, in fact, that she took vicarious joy that it must reflect on her in some way since we looked like her and got the pretty genes that must, by the associative property, have also come from her. Watching her struggle with her weight made me a bit co-dependent about weight issues, but was a powerful positive influence nonetheless to never, ever yo-yo. That seemed a bit substantive. Do I qualify anyway?
My first memory of my mom adressing my body image was in Elementary school trying on clothes (probably jeans at the thrift store) and her telling me that I needed to suck my belly in and push my chest out and that is how all normal girls walk around all the time, with their bellies sucked in… Is that weird?
This book sounds intriguing. My daughter just turned 28. I don’t think this is an important aspect of the mother-daughter relationship only when daughters are children or teens. Body image issues are with us throughout the life span.
The title of the book really got me thinking. While my oldest daughter is only 4, I have already noticed how my own body image is effecting her. I struggle with simple things like my need to wear make-up and my desire for her to see in herself her own natural beauty. The comments about my own body image and my need to lose weight are always on the tip of my tongue, and I have to keep them there when I see her big brown eyes staring at me from the doorway.
I think back to my own mother. She would never leave the house without make-up, always referred to herself as fat even when it was very obvious she was tiny. I remember her commenting to my and my sisters on many occasions that we needed to put on some make-up, or go tanning, or do something to hide our love handles. Even then I did realize that these issues were my mother’s and not mine. But, then I find myself repeating some of those things in my head. My mother still struggles with her body image. She’s a health nut, she is always getting her hair done, and going tanning, and anything else that she feels will make her more beautiful. Even surgery. I hope I can teach my girls how to be healthy and beautiful despite my own body image.
I’d love to receive a copy. Having struggled with an eating disorder and difficulties with my own mother, it’d be great to get new perspectives into mother-daughter relationships. My mother and I have a lot of healing to do, but we’re getting there.
Not sure how you contact winners of the give-away, but here’s my email: e.estt (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Thanks for your great blog!