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Lively Mom
Marti Erickson, Minnesota USA
www.momenough.com
From Amazing Moms: Parents of the 21st Century Copyright © 2018 Motivational Press. Reprinted with permission. By Hogan Hilling and Elise Cohen Ho.
Amazing Moms: Parents of the 21st Century is the 1st coffee table book to feature moms. It features 115 amazing moms from a variety of family dynamics and 13 countries – USA, Canada, Australia, England, Netherlands, France, Italy, China, Hungary, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Mozambique, and Croatia. It is filled with captivating self-portraits that reveal each mom’s unique personality and joyful photos of their families. The moms bear their souls about the challenges and joys of motherhood and share a wealth of wisdom about their parenting journeys. These moms represent motherhood and femininity at its best. Amazing Moms is the companion coffee table book to DADLY Dads.
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I’m the mother of two adults, Erin, and Ryan, wife of Ron, an architect, and grandma of five. In addition to being a mom, I devote my professional life to helping other women be the moms their children need and the women they want to be.
Since 2006, my daughter, Erin who is also in this book, and I have hosted a weekly parenting show, Mom Enough®. The show brings credible, research-based information to parents, along with a dose of candor and confession about our own ups and downs as moms. I’m a developmental psychologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where I spent decades teaching, doing research, developing programs for struggling families and working with policymakers from city hall to the White House. I’ve appeared regularly on KARE-TV (NBC) since 1995 and frequently speak throughout the U.S. and abroad.
I’m an avid reader, songwriter, and outdoor adventure-seeker, especially skiing, sailing, and hiking.
Quote.
There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes. – Unknown
What I do well as a mom.
I do a good job of having fun with the kids — being silly, creating plays, exploring nature whatever the weather. I make time to listen to the kids’ feelings and involve them in decision-making. I set clear behavioral expectations up front or have the kids set the expectations with me. Then I make sure to catch them being good.
What I learned from another mom.
My daughter Erin taught me how powerful it is to teach young children mindfulness strategies, such as noticing when your emotions start to heat up, using deep belly breaths to calm down and taking a time out to think about what you need to do next.
Lesson from my child.
From my children, I learned humility! It’s so easy to talk about good parenting and so hard to do it.
Successful motherhood moment.
A successful motherhood moment was helping my daughter, who was nine at the time, learn to structure an essay about working mothers, which was accepted for publication in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Since that publication 32 years ago, Erin has continued to study and practice her writing, developing a remarkable talent in what initially was an area of difficulty for her.
Mom I admire.
I admire my daughter Erin, who, in an age when it’s tempting to be “mom too much,” understands the importance of giving her children opportunities and guidance to build competence for life and a strong sense of their own contributions to their family, community, and society.
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Originally published in Amazing Moms: Parents of the 21st Century Copyright © 2018 Motivational Press. Reprinted with permission.
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Photo Credit: Elizabeth Barnwell
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