Discover the power, joy, and love of living "Hands Free"
In 2010, special education teacher and mother Rachel Macy Stafford decided enough was enough. Tired of losing track of what matters most, Rachel began practicing simple strategies that enabled her to let go of largely meaningless distractions and engage in meaningful soul-to-soul connections. She started a blog to chronicle her endeavors and soon saw how external and internal distractions had been sabotaging her happiness and preventing her from bonding with the people she loves most.
Hands Free Mama is the digital society's answer to finding balance in a media-saturated, perfection-obsessed world. It doesn't mean giving up all technology forever. It doesn't mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is looking our loved ones in the eye and giving them the gift of our undivided attention, leaving the laundry till later to dance with our kids in the rain, and living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions.
So join Rachel and go hands free. Discover what happens when you choose to open your heart — and your hands — to each God-given moment.
Hands Free Mama
A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 7, 2014 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781621883241
- File size: 220760 KB
- Duration: 07:39:54
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Jaimee Draper's appealing, innocent voice--she sounds very young in this recording--is a good fit for this material, which is aimed at overachieving young mothers who spend more time with their technical devices than their children. Without sounding like she's in recovery, she narrates with awestruck humility and does a fine job of conveying the author's candor, as well as giving credibility to her ideas. The book describes 12 strategies moms can adopt, one new one per month, to curb the compulsion to spend every moment checking email, texting, or getting things done. For those who want to reconnect with themselves and their family, this book offers practical structure that is made infinitely more inviting by the narrator's optimistic tone and natural-sounding enthusiasm for the book's intentions. T.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine -
December 2, 2013
In her first book, mommy blogger Stafford turns her experience of losing two years of enjoyment of her children’s lives to overbooking and perfectionism into a handbook of strategies to ignore “daily distractions and grasp moments of loving connection.” She blames the constant lure of the smartphone and laptop, combined with one’s inner drill sergeant, for the loss of precious moments, and recommends clearing the calendar for both loving rituals and spontaneous, mutual play. Saccharine stories about how much her children hug and kiss and say “I love you” when she focuses on them, and a privileged attitude that the world is made up of stay-at-home moms whose commitments are mostly optional, combine to passive-aggressively dare readers to make their children a priority. Though later chapters urge readers to let go of perfection, and although it’s certainly not the core lesson Stafford is trying to teach, her way of sharing her story makes her first guilt-laden message stick: you are throwing away the meaningful gifts and lessons you and your small children can give each other whenever you choose to focus on anything separate from them. Mothers for whom this lifestyle appeals may find affirmation here, but those struggling to balance childrearing and personal time better may feel judged. Agent: MacGregor Literary.
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