Lessons Mothers Need to Raise Extraordinary Men - Strong Mothers

I keep re-reading so I can internalize the lessons. There are powerful lessons that may be difficult to practice or keep in mind when situation is intense. Very helpful for first time mom to highly spirited son.

My Wife loved this book, We have 7 boys ages 35 -15 yrs. very insightful. Meg has good sound advise. a must read for new mothers and seasoned mothers as well.

I would recommend all Megs books.

I went into this book thinking that I was just going to read a whole bunch of "common sense" but there is actually a great deal of insight. This book has been very useful and I haven't even finished with it yet.

I echo what has been said previously: overtly Christian (but not advertised as such) and longer than it needs to be, though there are some decent ideas. Also, some of the case studies go over the top - like, if you don't help your son have hope then he can end up depressed and hopeless and wandering his whole long life. (That sounds more like clinical depression to me.)

Still reading but very appropriate for our circumstances. A strong STEP-Mom and a willful child. Got full-custody after a expensive 5 1/2 year battle to save him from an abusive mother. We are praying we got him in the nick-of-time (just turning six).

This has helped me tremendeously to understand my sons hearts, minds, and spirit. This one you have to keep referencing to for recap. This has totally prepared me for raising boys into great men and it is beginning to change my own perspectives on my personal journey. Read this carefully and keep it close by....you will need it.

I am about half way through this book, and I have a two year old son. I am gaining so much wisdom about how boys grow and how to support them intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually that I know this book will help me far into the future.

I have only one criticism about this book, if you could call it that: There is so much in here specific to different age groups that I feel like I need a cheat sheet to refer to! I can only hope that I will remember to keep referring to this book every couple of years as my son grows.

Excellent reading. I grew up with all girls and have no experience raising/growing up with boys. My son is only a month old but I have friends with older sons. This book helped me be able to understand and give them advice about their mother/son relationships. I will be able to start with my son from square one the right way.

This is a very helpful guide in helping mothers successfully navigate boys. They are different creatures, and just because we would think through and handle an issue a certain way, doesn't mean boys are built like that. We have to be mindful of our inherent differences and connect with our boys with that premise. I'm glad to have found this.

I have a nearly-teenaged daughter and am (surprise!) expecting a baby boy this summer. I figured rearing a girl would be intuitive for me since I am female, but wanted some guidance from the get-go with a boy. I'd heard Meg Meeker on the radio and really appreciated her outlook on parenting, so purchased this book. Man, it's a lot of great stuff. Chapter 8, or "the sex chapter," is totally worth the price of the book, especially if you're not boy-experienced. The overall theme is basically to be available, to be open to hear your kid, never to be "shocked," and to know when to step back and let your son healthily detach. But the message is driven home with examples, tools, and encouraging support throughout. I'll definitely need a brush-up in a few years, but until then am loaning this book out to as many friends as will read it. Very good stuff.

The book met our expectations in all respects. We are using ideas in the book to help our daughters and daughters-in-law raise their sons. W e recommend this book for all mothers raising sons. /// Mr. & Mrs. Lynch

I recommend this book to any mother of boys. I sent passages to so many of my friends who have 10-12 yr old boys. I even have a better relationship with my Ex because I referred him to passages regarding being there & just asking questions so that our son feels he can go to his Dad with emotional issues as well. I love how the author encouraged the reader to teach our sons how to pray and to be spiritual.

This is a great book! I believe that it is helping me to be a better mother in many ways. My son is a sweet 12 year old but has reached that age where They push the limits on everything. We are working through this and this book is giving me a better understanding of how to help him grow up to be a great young man.

Bestselling author and M.D. Meg Meeker delivers a helpful, survival guide for mothers, who adore their sons. The author begins this interesting manual by sharing personal stories through many years of experience. The author discusses some of her patients she knew when very young, and the drastic changes that came into place, during their teen years. The changes that took place happened not only to the boys, but to their mothers as well. Meg Meeker discusses the mother-son relationship, devoted mothers, and core issues that mothers are confronted with.

The author outlines the unique needs that boys have, while offering encouragement, and practical advice. Meg Meeker discusses the need to exercise courage, and the burden on single mothers, when it comes to raising sons. In addition, the author discusses the crucial importance of loving, when the going gets tough.

Most important, when things go wrong in a relationship, the author explains why outbursts should not be taken personally. A few key factors to making things better would be teaching them how to love, and letting go a little. The reader will learn ways to have a better, healthier, and less stressed relationship.

This clever book is a road map to help mothers become good enough to raise extraordinary sons. This book will guide those mothers, who feel like their efforts, never match up to their expectations. The author discusses who mothers really need to be for their sons, and who they don't need to be.

Meg Meeker also discusses today's society and the pressure on young boys, as their sense of being strong begins to plummet, and they enter the disturbing trend of becoming less motivated to excel. She also discusses confusion in boys as they enter their teen years, issues with self-esteem, and becoming strong. In conclusion, the author conveys that mothers need to understand and accept who she is, and who she isn't.

To sum it up in this survival guide, Meg Meeker highlights that it's never too late to repair a relationship, to fix what's broken, and how important it is to know how to handle emotional pain. The golden key to unlock the door from depression and anxiety is knowing what crucial steps are needed to repair a broken relationship, and love must be there through the good, and the tough times. In order to give full support, mothers must understand themselves first, in order to build a solid, healthy and loving relationship with their sons. This inspiring book motivates throughout, and makes you think, long after this book is closed. Interesting, informative, and concise. Highly recommended!

I was not a fan of this book. While the points were well enough stated, I didnt like what seemed the negative portayal of a closeknit mom-son relationship. It seemed outdated. I hope we move beyond that paradigm where a mother contentedly plays the supporting role in a family. There is plenty of room in a son's life, if he lucky enough to be raised by both parents in an equal partnership/relationship, for each parent to be seen as strong and powerful person who bring their own unique and lasting influence. Maybe I missed the point, but it rubbed me wrong in a big way. I encourage self reliance and independence. Both are important to me, but family, love, and connection seem equally so. How do we develop a deeper sense of connectedness with our sons while honoring their need for respect? That is the path for me.

I was enjoying the book (18 pages in) until I decided to flip to the back. I happened to land on page 227 and began to read "Sons, Sex and the Preteen Years." I couldn't believe what I was reading. Astonished, upset, mad. I read it to my husband and he was livid because of what it is promoting. "Around age 10.... It is fairly usual for boys to ask their friends to touch or kiss their ___." (page 227) " Having one or two mutually agreed upon encounters with a boy who is the same age isn't unhealthy..." (page 228) WHAT!! Moms, be very wary of this book. It is NOT OK for a 10 year old boy to ask their friend to touch or kiss their private area. IT IS NOT OK!

As a Mom of 2 boys, that the sun rises and sets by, this was very helpful to take a look into their psyche. Especially where I thought simply expressing, communicating your feelings was normal. I am learning to see and understand the make up of my boys and how I can help them to grow into strong productive men.

I love my boys.

This book was written with a conservative, Christian-based, heterosexual bias. Most of the text assumed that the reader was strongly bonded, if not suffocating of their son. I found it difficult to relate to the book.

Strong Mothers is a book I purchased for my granddaughter who has two sons. I saw the author on EWTN talking about some of the issues that mothers have with their sons and how to respond to them. I felt it would help my granddaughter in raising her sons.

I asked my son (6th grader) to read this book. He read it, came back to me, and said, "mom, you really should read it!"
Amazing!
My son actually told a few stories from this book to back up his statement.

Our son is in his late 30s and although this book is advertised as useful for all ages, it is best suited to mothers of young sons. The author does make a couple of points that are worth taking to heart for older moms. I will be giving this book to my daughter who has a 3 year old son.

This book has some good topics for consideration HOWEVER it is written from a completely heterosexual perspective. For having been published in 2014, I expected a bit more of an inclusive starting point. But every single chapter talks about the stereotypical mom/dad household and parenting dynamic. There is nothing in this book for non-straight parenting scenarios, which I found disappointing. There are lots of lesbian couples raising boys but this book failed to include these families, which is a real shame. There is also a heavy God/Christian/religious slant that was not apparent before purchasing.

Overall, this is a valuable book, but it was long and ovedrawn. One of the best parts of the book is a list of a few things that we can do to love and accept our sons better (p.172). Here's a list, although the book expounds on each item. 1.look him in the eye frequently 2.Don't be shocked by him. 3.Try not to get rattled 4.Skip the blame game 5.Don't bring up past mistakes 6.Forgive him. I found chapter 8 the most valuable--it's about talking to boys about sex. It's a chapter I will revisit in the future as he gets older. Also for me to re-read in the future is chapter 10: Letting Go (So You Can Get Him Back). Again, lots of good points.

If you're not religious, then skip chapter 5: If God Wore Lipstick, He'd Wear Your Shade. There's religion sprinkled into the other chapters as well, but those can be easily modified by atheists. I'm not one to reject an entire book's wisdom just because of the religious stuff, but like any parenting book, some points make sense to me and others don't, and there is still valuable information to gain, even if you end up rejecting other parts.

It seems to be an unwritten rule in parenting that as soon as you get used to whatever life stage your children are at, they move into another one. My sons are currently thirteen and eleven which means that they are beginning that difficult transition from boys to men. We are clearly in uncharted territory here. Luckily for me, Dr. Meg Meeker, respected pediatrician and author, has written a new book all about parenting these men-in-training (and keeping one’s sanity in the process!)

"Strong Mothers, Strong Sons: Lessons Mothers Need to Raise Extraordinary Men" acknowledges that raising sons presents a challenge that raising daughters does not. After all, we women can remember being girls and young women; we can never fully understand what it is like to be male. We still have a very important role to play in our son’s development, however. We “lay the foundation for how he will relate to women for the rest of his life.”

Meeker also emphasizes that no matter how much we might want to also fill the “father” role in his life, we can’t do that. Boys need to have a significant relationship with their father or another male role model if his father isn’t available. What we need to be is the best mother we can be. “This book is about helping every mother understand and accept who she is and who she isn’t . . . to accept that we are good enough, just the way we are, for our sons.”

Meeker shares the importance of spending time with our sons and telling them that we love them, even when they are in the midst of rejecting us in their quest to be independent. “Every boy reaches a time when he needs to make an emotional break from his mother.” Sometimes we simply need to be patient and available, even if it takes months for them to share something with us. “It’s a few words of encouragement during the day, exercising patience with him when he really needs it, or giving him a smile of affirmation when he feels like a failure that can change how he feels about himself and his life.”

While the chapter on talking with your son about sex is probably the most difficult to read and put into practice, although obviously extremely important, the chapter on wisdom and responsibility is the one with the eternal ramifications. We need to teach our sons that they need to be willing to ask God for help. We need to pray with and for them. As mothers, we also need to acknowledge that “we don’t own our sons.” They ultimately belong to God. Ultimately, we need to let go and fully put him in God’s hands because our little boys grow into men who no longer need us.

That doesn’t mean that they won’t choose to have a relationship with us. “It really is in the letting go of our sons that we get them back. They return to us as men who are free from our needs and confident in themselves. . . Now it is time for them to be men who want, who among other things, to enjoy the company of their dear mother.”

Meeker shares the beautiful story of Fr. John Riccardo. He said “that it was at the moment that his mother gave him to God that he felt something deep and wonderful change in their relationship. He said that from that point forward, they enjoyed a new closeness that they had never experienced before. It was a closeness he knew they would never have had if his mother had not said goodbye to him.”

Not all of us will have the honor of raising a priest, but at some point, we all need to say goodbye to the parenting stage of raising our sons and move into an adult relationship with them. "Strong Mothers, Strong Sons" is a great guide to navigating the turbulent teen years and coming out on the other side with a quality relationship with our sons.

The author has written pages and pages of what boys need from their mothers, but no pages of how mothers are to deliver.
I found the book terrifying and overwhelming. It gave me a sense that my son is headed for depression and self destruction unless I step in and do everything Meeker has outlined in this book. Yet there is no instruction on how to get those things accomplished.

I am a mental health counselor and bought this book in hopes of assisting my clients (especially single moms) improve their relationship with their sons. I did not realize that this book had a Christian bent but easily skipped the chapter stressing religion. The cons of the book is that a lot of the advice is outdated. The author's information on attachment and child outcomes of day care is frankly incorrect and not based on the current research. The author comes down hard on single mothers in a way that does not recognize the unique difficulties of being a single mom and how incredibly stressful finances and time becomes. Not working or cutting down work is simply terrible advice for the majority of single mothers (or parents in general). What the book does well is actually not the parts that relate to gender; teaching your child that their life has meaning other than themselves, the importance of volunteering and serving others, and finding your unique skills and passions is great for all children. She also makes a point for parents to examine the unconscious bias that they are bringing to the table. Take this book with a grain of salt.

I should have done more research about this book before buying it. I felt like the book had a very Christian undertone (which is something you don't need to be a good mother), it was longer than I felt like it should be, and a lot of the "lessons" were no-brainers. This wasn't the book for me, but if it works for someone else, that's great!

This book is so handy and helpful. I read it about a year ago, but found it so inspiring that I keep it by bedside for easy reference. I often just flip through it when I've had a tough day with 9 and 11 year olds, and it always helps. A few readers have mentioned her reference to God and religion. That is mildly annoying and easy to overcome: I am an atheist, and have no problem skipping over those parts. It does not detract from the overall message: boys need their moms, but they need us in a different way than girls do. Love, love, love it.

Wow. As a father of three (two sons and a daughter) and now nine grandchildren, I am amazed about what I have learned about the Mother-Son relationship. This is a great life-skills book and deserves the attention of both parents. As Stephen Covey has said, “Seek first to understand.” Thanks Dr. Meeker for helping me in my journey of being a lifelong learner!

I've read all but a few of Dr. Meeker's books and I have to say each one has opened my eyes to a better way to parent and a better view into myself. As a woman and mother of a 15 year old son, who only had sisters when I was growing up, this was such a wonderful read for me!!! I needed the practical knowledge that may seem obvious to others, the statistical details that help me understand today's youth, and the advice on how to better understand what is going on in my son's testosterone filled body/brain! If you haven't latched on to Dr. Meeker for advice and support you are missing a HUGE resource of practical and medical knowledge that comes in a well written format that reads like one mom talking to another!!

HARD sell religion. insulting to freethinking non religious parents who are encouraging their children to be independent thinkers.

she has a very superior self righteous tone. i would remind her that religions have a LOT to answer for

people must not shove their beliefs down their children’s throats, it is abusive

This is the first book I've found that really hits the nail on the head about raising a son and is particularly good in its discussions about the importance of dads being involved and how to facilitate that. It also makes clear the importance of boys having a good male role model in their lives even if their dad isn't able to be that man.

Loved this book! I bought it for a young single mom and read it to determine whether it was a good choice for her. In this book the author makes suggestions for single moms that I thought were helpful. This book helped me to understand a young family member (college age) who is struggling with self esteem. It helped me understand boys and the way they think. It has helped me in knowing how to reach out to him and encourage him. I am buying several copies to give to my friends who are raising sons. I am also recommending it to my minister's wife as a resource for mothers.

I gained so much knowledge on how to handle and improve my relationship with my teenage son. My son has been having issues at school and at home. This book has taught me that sons are different from daughters and how I can be a better mother to my son.

I searched for a book to help me understand the dynamic of my relationship with my adult son. This book adressed that and gave me much more insight about his growing up years. I would recommend this to all mother's with sons. It reassured me that the dynamics of our family life positioned him well to be a strong man.
I benefitted from the descriptions of the unique relationship that a mother has with her son. The many stories illustrated the concepts beautifully.

Exceptional Book. A fantastic read for mothers who are raising young boys. Very practical in so many ways, and makes you think about things that you perhaps would not have before. I highly recommend this book.

As a mother of a 4 year old boy I was captivated by this book. It has lots of tips for parents on how to handle and bring up boys at different stages of their life starting from kindergartners to teenagers. I was also fascinated by the stories of many parents that the author shares with the readers.

A good read for moms who have boys.