What Not to Expect: A Meditation on the Spirituality of Parenting Named Best Parenting Book of 2006 by the Catholic Press Association

The Catholic Press Association looks for excellence in religious and spiritual publishing and I am delighted that they chose my first book with Crossroad for this honor. I am particularly proud because What Not to Expect speaks to parents of all faith traditions as it seeks a universal and common ground of being for parenting. I hope that my new book How's My Kid Doing will bring more attention to this first book. As my two sons get older, I realize the more the parenting path varies, twists and winds, the more my previously trusty navigational devices fail me, and the more I must embrace with humility the grand mystery of it all. I go back to What Not to Expect more and more often to remind myself that I will never have the answer or the one right technique as a parent. It is about relating to my kids as authentic, free human beings. Parenting is an exercise in plumbing the depths of love that challenges--each day--my stamina, my ego, my intelligence, my past, my emotions, and my character. In this way, parenting is a religious awakening. Most times I am not up to it; most days I stumble; you can't go on-but you go on. And then a smile, a moment of shared silence, a hug, a gleam in the eye breaks through the confusion and you know you are connected. These are moments of revelation.