L. Anderson shows women how to emotionally separate from their difficult mothers without guilt and anxiety, so they can finally create a life based on their own values, desires, needs, and preferences.

While I learned some valuable tools that I will attempt to put to practice, I don’t think that this was the right book for me. Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association. Miriam’s daughter felt that she had to mind read what her mother really felt and wanted, and she was tired of it.For that, and for her clear, uncompromising prose, I would suggest that every woman who has struggled with her relationship to motherhood–from any perspective–reach for Difficult Mothers, Adult Daughters. She is an inspirational speaker and an internationally recognized relationship expert who has had the privilege of working with over 200,000 people in her virtual and in-person learning communities and has trained and certified hundreds of people as coaches of her highly transformative work. Families that subscribe to the culture of female service expect mothers and daughters to be selfless, sacrificial, self-neglecting caregivers.

Stop writing Karen (how aptly named) and go volunteer to work with motherless daughters, or daughterless mothers and then come back and give us YOUR review. She seems to try not to blame the mothers that are manipulative, saying it is on us, as the daughter, to work through this without blame. The silencing of women’s needs is an intergenerational dynamic that gets passed on from mother to daughter because the mother is not able to teach her daughter how to voice her needs openly and honestly. These insights come from the mother-daughter attachment model I have developed through my 20-plus years of listening to thousands of mothers and daughters of all ages from different countries and cultures. Even Bethany Webster who is a coach btw and whom the author quotes here acknowledges that you need to go to real therapy before you are ready to work with her.Someone needs to quickly author a book that disabuse your readers and set them back on the right course of working towards the closest, most honest and open daughter~mother relationship and never stop trying. In her groundbreaking memoir, Another Step Up the Mountain, Dianette tells of her unique experiences climbing the Seven Summits, participating in adventure races (including four Eco-Challenges and ultra marathons around the world), as she raised three wonderful children.

The shortage of men caused by war at home or abroad make them a scacrer commidity, along with their earning power and strength and breeds this contemptious attitude that, therefore, these remaining men must be served and catered to regardless of the relationship casualties.

For that, and for her clear, uncompromising prose, I would suggest that every woman who has struggled with her relationship to motherhood―from any perspective―reach for Difficult Mothers, Adult Daughters. L. Anderson who has approached, embraced, and translated, in the most compassionate and engaging way, the most essential of subjects: the relationships between mothers and daughters. When we understand that mother-daughter attachment disruption or conflict tells the story of how sexist beliefs and gender role stereotypes harm women’s voices and rights, the mother-daughter relationship becomes an unstoppable force for change at the worldwide and family levels. Him being too lazy and soaked in his “privilege” as a male to both control and hide the family resources to manipulate us all into little more than unpaid servants deserving of no respect. And in my office, all too often I hear mothers and daughters voice their frustrations about the lack of specialized help.