‘Trees Make the Best Mobiles’ — Ideas To Help Moms

There’s a lot of good information in the book “Trees make the best mobiles.” Although it seems to be written for the brand new mom, there is a lot of advice in the book relative to moms of toddlers and slightly older kids. It’s a quick read too. Here are some of the top tips that I got from the book:

• Our children sense our frenzy and are unnerved by it.
• In 1985 a Mexico City earthquake, there were 56 newborns who survived for more than a week, without their mothers.
• Society emphases speed for developmental milestones, but we should take our time. “Revel in the now.”
• An example of what a child hears when parents disagree — it’s like a pilot saying, “not that button, you idiot.”
• Sometimes it’s OK to let your child to become bored. This is when they learn to draw on their own resources.
• Give yourself a break.
• Discipline and disciple come from the same word — to teach.

My favorite advice from the book is:

• Ask more specific questions. Instead of how was school? ask “Who did you play with after your nap today?”
• The way you treat your child will be the basis of his emotional calculus for years to come.
• Make sure that what your child is absorbing from you isn’t your ragged, frustrated or furious self, but your best self. (This is great advice. We should act as if we are being filmed for a reality TV show and learn that the cameras are always on — they are on in our children’s eyes.)

There are a few times in the book where I disagree with the advice, like when one chapter focuses on not putting your child in contraptions. Sometimes these devices are necessary for Moms to take a shower, fix dinner, or just to keep the baby off his/her back. I also wish the book followed a more logical order — some chapters are about newborns or infants, others about two-year-old tantrums.

For the most part, however, the book if filled with good advice and is a winner for first-time mom-to-be.