HAPPY YOU, HAPPY FAMILY

A guide aimed at helping parents take care of their families by first taking care of themselves.

In this debut self-help book, Holmes begins with a personal story, “The Day I Broke,” about a particularly stressful day of juggling deadlines at work with the hectic demands of parenting young children. This event launched her quest to answer a seemingly simple question, “How do you find happiness in the chaos of parenting?” In this book, she provides the answers that she found and, more importantly, applied. She first shares 10 secrets to finding happiness—the first and most important of which is “You can’t do it all”—as well as tips for building and breaking habits, such as “bundling” a routine that’s difficult to implement, exercising, for example, with a more desirable activity, like reading. After that, she presents several research-supported suggestions to increase happiness, such as cutting down on clutter and complaining, while encouraging readers to “tinker to find [their] recipe” for whatever works for them. Holmes then ends the book with a few encouraging thoughts about preventing or recovering from inevitable moments of frustration. The book reads much like a series of interrelated blog posts, with catchy headings; an authentic, conversational tone; and short, powerful sentences that work to engage the reader. The author’s advice is practical, doable, and even trackable thanks to the book’s companion workbook. She also offers creative and memorable insights that greatly support her suggestions, such as a description of a to-do list as “a parking lot for all the thoughts zooming around in your brain.” The book will encourage and validate busy parents who are trying to do their best. And there’s plenty of parenting humor, too, such as a description of “that clay sculpture your big kid made at school that’s supposed to be a leafy sea dragon but looks more like a clump of cat litter.”

An entertaining and extremely helpful resource for parents trying to find their balance in hectic circumstances.