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All Moms Go to Heaven
By Dean Hughes
In All Moms Go to Heaven, well-known LDS writer Dean Hughes describes the summer he spent taking care of the kids while his wife, Kathy, worked on her master's degree. After a few weeks of drying tears (sometimes his own), changing diapers, and watching Sesame Street, Dean came to understand what mothers really do and why they're so important.
In this thoughtful and often hilarious book, you'll find plenty to ponder and to laugh about.
Alison Moore Smith is a 60-year-old entrepreneur, who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 39 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons.
This is probably going to be the last official MM Book Club book. A friend gave it to me in the RS Friendship Basket last week. It is one great little book and you all deserve to read it before Mother’s Day.
Excellent book! Borrowed it from a friend last fall. Lots of good thoughts and perspective and humor!
Alison, why the last?
Tired of mostly talking to myself! 😎
Oh, bummer…but I can’t say I contributed a whole lot. Sorry. It’s just that several of the books were ones I had already read – but didn’t remember enough to make intelligent comments, and didn’t want to re-read because there was so much else already piled up. Some of the book choices had quite a bit of activity, didn’t they?
I got the book. The author is married to someone who was in a general presidency or something.
Yes, his wife is Kathleen Hughes who was first counselor in the RS general presidency under Bonnie Parkin.
Hughes (the author) is fairly candid in his discussions about his wife. I love it. (I’m almost done with the book–an easy read, less than 100 pages.) He said she feels like “an impostor” serving in the general presidency. As I mentioned in the conference thread, I just loved this humanity.
Haven’t some of you also felt this way? “If they REALLY knew who I was, they’d never put me in this position.” And there she was, 2nd in command, so to speak, and even SHE felt that way. Just loved that.
Finished this yesterday. Loved it.
So, let’s hear. What did you love?
Picked this one up from the library yesterday and read it in an afternoon. What a great little book!
marathoner, I give you a virtual hug. I usually don’t relate much to the mothering-type books, but I thought this had a great balance of joy/pain, fun/difficulty, expectations/reality.
I loved the part about one of his bitty granddaughters telling her dad to “fix the darn computer”–only the word wasn’t darn. I’m thinking that if the general RS presidency has daughters who curse sometimes (mine don’t–not to impugn them), then I can still qualify for something in spite of my imperfections.
My then-two-year-old said the “s” word in front of my mom! Shocked, she asked, “Where did he learn that word?” I’m a really, really terrible liar, so I just told the truth–I hung my head and mumbled, “From his mother.” Mind you, I had only ever uttered that word ONCE, and it was under great duress. I guess once is all it took. How embarrassing!
Topic? Umm, I felt validated when he talked about always feeling guilty during the Infamous Summer of 1973. (For those of you who haven’t read the book, he stayed home with their 3 children, ages 5, 3, and 3 months, for a summer while his wife earned her master’s degree during the day and worked part-time at night.) I don’t know about you, but that’s a constant battle for me in my life as a mom. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to finish every single thing I need and want to do, and on any given day, something’s gotta give. Some days it’s the housework, some days it’s any sort of “me” time, too many days it’s engaging with my children in a meaningful way. I hate that!
I’m right with you marathoner. Most mothering books are either too saccharin for me–full of glowing perfection–or are too I’m-just-fine-however-I-am-get-off-my-case.
To me this book was dead on in my trying to be a good mom, having high ideals, sometimes failing miserably, doing stuff I’m embarrassed to admit, doing stuff I know I shouldn’t, but none of that dooms me to rot in the pit of hell. It was a real upper for me.
I read this book adn thought it was really good. it was easy to read but made me feel good about being a mom and most books don’t. I think i’ll give it to my mom on mothers day.