Title:Easy to Love But Hard to Raise
Subtitle:Real Parents, Challenging Kids, True Stories
Editors: Kay Marner and Adrienne Ehlert Bashista
Length: 344 pages
Website:www.easytolovebut.com
Find on:Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest
If there's anything the 32 parent-writers and 25 experts of Easy to Love but Hard to Raise know, it's this: You are not alone. We've been there. We've done that. We've navigated the system. Some of us succeeded, some failed. We've been judged by friends, teachers, family, and strangers. We've gotten the phone calls and the looks. We've done things we never thought we'd do, good and bad. We've been up nights, cried in our pillows, and screamed in frustration We've doubted ourselves, our children, and our partners. We've had to educate everyone, including our children's doctors. We are parents of children with alphabet soup diagnoses, invisible special needs, behavioral problems. Our children are easy to love, but oh, so hard to raise."
Scroll down for more on 'Easy to Love But Hard to Raise.'
On the Reader Respond page for Easy to Love But Hard to Raise, reader Linda wrote: "SO NEEDED! There is nothing quite as lonely as raising a special needs child. Don't think society doesn't still somehow blame the parents -- and that includes professionals."
Some kids are easy to love. Some kids just sail through childhood getting love wherever and whenever they need it.
But then there are the kids who live in alphabet soup. They are not so easy to love. They can be difficult, distant, disobedient, defiant, dangerous, even delusional. They can leave a parent crying herself to sleep every night, they can leave a parent feeling guilty for having negative feelings, they can leave a parent despairing that the child will ever find a way in the world, they can deplete the store of love every parent starts off with.
But they can’t deplete it for long. That’s what’s so amazing about these parents. They keep on keeping on. They never give up. They give their all, and then they find more all to give. They are paragons of the best of the human spirit. And they earn this praise in the hot and dusty arena of the struggle to raise a child who can seem, at times, impossible to raise.
Tell us why you love it.
> > > Read what fans wrote.
Easy to Love But Hard to Raise is one of five finalists in the Favorite New Special-Needs Memoir category. To learn about the rest, go to the category index. There are seven other categories in the 2013 Readers' Choice Awards, and you can find out about them at the Readers' Choice Awards HQ.
Subtitle:Real Parents, Challenging Kids, True Stories
Editors: Kay Marner and Adrienne Ehlert Bashista
Length: 344 pages
Website:www.easytolovebut.com
Find on:Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest
A Message from the Editors of 'Easy to Love But Hard to Raise'
I asked co-editor Kay Marner what makes this book special, and she wrote: "Easy to Love but Hard to Raise: Real Parents, Challenging Kids, True Stories is a collection of personal essays written by parents of kids with ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and other 'alphabet soup' diagnoses, about what it's really like to parent those children. Twenty-five experts answer questions that arise organically from the text. Dr. Edward Hallowell, author of more than a dozen books, including the ADHD classic Driven to Distraction, wrote the book's foreword.If there's anything the 32 parent-writers and 25 experts of Easy to Love but Hard to Raise know, it's this: You are not alone. We've been there. We've done that. We've navigated the system. Some of us succeeded, some failed. We've been judged by friends, teachers, family, and strangers. We've gotten the phone calls and the looks. We've done things we never thought we'd do, good and bad. We've been up nights, cried in our pillows, and screamed in frustration We've doubted ourselves, our children, and our partners. We've had to educate everyone, including our children's doctors. We are parents of children with alphabet soup diagnoses, invisible special needs, behavioral problems. Our children are easy to love, but oh, so hard to raise."
Scroll down for more on 'Easy to Love But Hard to Raise.'
Reader Testimonial
On the Reader Respond page for Easy to Love But Hard to Raise, reader Linda wrote: "SO NEEDED! There is nothing quite as lonely as raising a special needs child. Don't think society doesn't still somehow blame the parents -- and that includes professionals."
An Excerpt from 'Easy to Love But Hard to Raise'
From the intro, written by Dr. Edward Hallowell:Some kids are easy to love. Some kids just sail through childhood getting love wherever and whenever they need it.
But then there are the kids who live in alphabet soup. They are not so easy to love. They can be difficult, distant, disobedient, defiant, dangerous, even delusional. They can leave a parent crying herself to sleep every night, they can leave a parent feeling guilty for having negative feelings, they can leave a parent despairing that the child will ever find a way in the world, they can deplete the store of love every parent starts off with.
But they can’t deplete it for long. That’s what’s so amazing about these parents. They keep on keeping on. They never give up. They give their all, and then they find more all to give. They are paragons of the best of the human spirit. And they earn this praise in the hot and dusty arena of the struggle to raise a child who can seem, at times, impossible to raise.
Are You a Fan of 'Easy to Love But Hard to Raise'?
Tell us why you love it.
> > > Read what fans wrote.
Meet the Other 2013 Readers' Choice Awards Finalists
Easy to Love But Hard to Raise is one of five finalists in the Favorite New Special-Needs Memoir category. To learn about the rest, go to the category index. There are seven other categories in the 2013 Readers' Choice Awards, and you can find out about them at the Readers' Choice Awards HQ.
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