The Single Moms Guide to Finding Joy in the Chaos (Paperback)

by Elsa Kok Colopy (Author) "It was hard for me to control my laughter..." (more)
Key Phrases: Valentine's Day

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Raising preschoolers can be exasperating, not to mention exhausting. And single parents have it tougher still. Elsa Kok Colopy has been there. She knows the struggle well. In A Single Mom's Guide to Finding Joy in the Chaos, Elsa comes alongside readers as a trusted friend to help them handle twenty crucial parenting issues. Writing with warmth and vulnerability, Elsa addresses everything from nutrition to discipline, including how readers can - build their child's self-esteem and sense of belonging - get creative about budgeting and paying off debt - use sibling rivalry to teach problem-solving skills With short, easy-to-read chapters, this book makes it easy for moms to find the encouragement they need, the moment they need it. A Single Mom's Guide to Finding Joy in the Chaos is full of powerful inspiration and hope for moms raising kids on their own.

From the Inside Flap
Catalog excerpt: I can almost picture you. You have a touch of peanut butter in your hair, a smudge of grease on your cheek, and more than one broken fingernail. You're tired and probably hungry. And the last time you did something for yourself was when you bought this book-eight months ago. Oh friend, I understand! I was a single mother for 12 years. My daughter is 13 years old, and I'm just now getting the peanut butter out of my own hair. It's been an incredible run, and I know that I still have some of the best years ahead of me. I can tell you this: my daughter did survive. She not only survived, she seemed to laugh pretty regularly, to create with abandon, and to learn most of the English language. As a mom, sometimes I did things well. Sometimes I fell flat on my face. I made good decisions and bad ones. And I learned. This book deals with many of the things I encountered as a single parent. But first, before you even begin, I have something to tell you. You are amazing! You are a hero! And you have my utmost respect.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Revell (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800730666
• ISBN-13: 978-0800730666
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #881,467 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Single Mom Relating, June 20, 2009

By	Joyce Maxwell (United States) - See all my reviews

Elsa was a single mom for quite awhile raising her daughter. She is also part of the Divorce Care videos that I just finished, which is a 13-week divorce healing and recovery course. I just love how she speaks, with such compassion, softness, and care. Her book is no exception. Right off the bat, I felt connected to her.

One of the things she talked about was her friendships with women. There was a point in her life she did not feel that she needed female friends, as most her friends were men. Starting in 2005, when I went to my first Women's Retreat, I had felt that way. Most of the time, I did not connect with other women unless they were engineers, technical, or business people. Forget it if you were the stay at home mom, liked all this girlie stuff, you were all a mystery to me.

Yet, I found as I became a mother in 2000, and as I allowed God to change me starting 2005, that I found good friendships with women who were very different than me. But, it wasn't until recently as I identified (with a lot of help from the Holy Spirit, counseling, etc) the root cause of my rebellion, and really took a friend's suggestion to deepen my friendships with women, that I began to find power and joy in this.

I'm truly beginning to really enjoy turning to my women friends for support rather than my male friends, as there is a bonding with another woman friend that I cannot get with a man. How I've listened to the lies of Satan over the years and lost out on so much. I'm finding that some of the women I'm connecting with are super girlie, but in the end, we all want to be loved, to be accepted, to be protected, to be cherished.

Not totally there yet, but I've found that I've not really had the chance to really be all the woman God created me to be. I actually do love feeling pretty and to be found attractive. I hope that I can help Hannalee be her very best, which is both feminine, strong, capable, intelligent, industrious. There's more.

I don't think this was a book on how to be a woman and to connect to other women, but that's where I am so far, also not very far into the book. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book and will continue this review as I read.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Singlemotherhood is Joyful!, August 5, 2006

By	Leah Klungness "co-author The Complete Single... (Locust Valley, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Single moms of preschoolers will find handy hints for managing the every day challenges of raising a toddler. Budget help and ways to make a dollar stretch are always welcome. And, of course, former partners can often be less helpful and far more aggravating than a slightly frazzled single mom imagined. To cope with all the challenges of single motherhood, no matter what the age of your child, check out The Complete Single Mother, recently published in a completely revised third edition.