As part of the launch team for Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World by Kristen Welch, I was excited for an opportunity to read and review this book.
I’m familiar with Kristen Welch from her blog We Are That Family. She’s written some amazing blog posts that have challenged me in my parenting, made me think about exactly why we do what we do in parenting and even in my own life outside of parenting and marriage.
This book was a game changer for me. I’ve been feeling the effects of entitlement and ungratefulness in my own heart lately which is also showing up in my kids as well. Hearing from a mom in the trenches of motherhood herself who is not an expert but just like me, learning to shift the perspective in our hearts and homes. Shifting the perspective is costly, teaching gratitude and parenting upstream in this world is going to be difficult.
“Gratitude in our convenient, gratification-filled, selfie obsessed, entitled society is a rarity. Choosing to lead our families against the flow of our culture will cost us.”
It’s so easy when we live in a subdivision where all the houses are fairly similar, everyone drives nice cars, kids participate in sports, etc, to think that this is what the rest of the world lives like. I want my kids to see that not everyone has an iphone in 6th grade, that having to do chores is not the worst thing in the world while kids are digging through garbage dumps in other parts of the world. That “gross” meal I just made is more than some kids will get to eat this entire week.
“If we see life through only one lens, we believe the misconception that everyone in the world has what we do, and our blessings start looking a lot like expectations.”
This book equips you as a parent, in all stages and ages of your children. At the end of each chapter is a section called Going Against the Flow, which has tips, ideas, suggestions and conversation starters for parents, marriage, toddlers/preschoolers, elementary, tweens/teens on how to be countercultural. The back of the book also has a cell phone contract for Partents and Children along with a Christian Manifesto which is really awesome and I am going to be displaying in my home.
She ends with a letter to Parents and these words may have been the most impactful, scary and encouraging things I have read in a long time.
The following pages are probably the most important in this book, and yet they might be the hardest to read. We’ve made it to the last chapter, and it could be different from what you were expecting. Most books wrap everything up in a tidy package. But I can’t tie up these chapters neatly with a bow because parenting is messy. Oh, it’s also wonderful and the highest calling of our lives, but it’s probably one of the hardest things we will ever do. Here’s what you must know: If you go against the cultural flow and lead your family upstream, doing the things I’ve suggested, it’s completely possible that all hell will break loose in your home. Even with a big bow on it, that’s a difficult truth to swallow.
There is so much more I could say about this book but I will let you discover all the wisdom and truth wrapped up in here. This is definitely a must read! Head over to Kristen’s blog for some other great resources, including a free download of Quick-Guide to Gratitude for your Dinner Table and a chance to win 2 copies of the book and 5 world cosmetic pouches from DaySpring!
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