Mommy Life: Help for moms with overweight daughters

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Leaving Cold Sassy

On Being Catholic

Sister Wendy's Story of Painting

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Rules for Radicals

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Our family has been subscribing to this news magazine for 12 years - News from an enlightened, intelligent Christian perspective - and getting better all the time. Great reading for teens too.

Surprised by Truth 2

15 men and women - including some evangelicals who were deeply prejudiced against Catholicism - share their personal experience as well as the biblical and historical reasons why they became Catholic.

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Poor Nora! The loveable mousette experiences all the pangs of the child-in-the- middle, caught between the demands of baby brother and bossiness of big sister. Catchy meter, playful illustrations make for a wonderfully satisfying mouse's tale. Baby-Preschool

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A remarkably beautiful story told by a young girl whose mother is a waitress. Since they lost all their furniture in a fire, they've been saving mother’s tips in a jar – so they can buy a big comfortable chair for their whole family to enjoy – daughter, mother and grandmother. Life has its ups and downs, but there’s always lots of love. Ages 4-7

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Be dramatic! Shake your fists! Stomp your feet! You and your toddler will have so much fun with this wonderful story, in which common sense prevails over temper tantrums! 3-7

See more great kids' books under Barbara's Picks

Character Sketches From the Pages of Scripture, Illustrated in the World of Nature

Institue in Basic Youth Conflicts

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November 28, 2006 7:40 AM

Help for moms with overweight daughters

Some time ago, a reader wrote to ask for help in dealing with an overweight daughter. I just came across this website which has some great advice and recommended books:

Moms! Help Your Overweight Daughter!

It is a difficult situation to have someone in your family who needs to be liberated from layers of fat, who may not even recognize the pattern of overeating so obvious to others. I know because my oldest daughter prayed for eight years for me to adopt a healthier lifestyle. I also know that until I broke my addiction to food, I was not at all honest about how much I was consuming. The bottom line is that you just can't eat more than your body needs or you will get fat. And fat insulates and isolates you.

This is what makes it so difficult for mothers who want the best for their daughters. Still, it's painful to watch someone continuing down a self-destructive path and feel prohibited from saying anything. If your child were addicted to drugs or alcohol or sex, you'd speak right up - without tiptoeing around because you might hurt her feelings.

And for girls who rebel against controlling mothers by putting on weight - that reminds me of an old expression "cutting off your nose to spite your face." It may drive your mother crazy, but the one it's really hurting is you.

What we all need to realize is that we are free to let these things go at any time. It might take some effort - it's taken me a lot of effort to lose 75 pounds - but it is so worth it! Just know you have a God who cares about you and will help you when you are willing. In the process he will teach you many lessons you never knew you needed.

He really wants the best for us. It's up to us to stop getting in the way of our own freedom.