Why did I want to read Momma Cusses: A Field Guide to Responsive Parenting & Trying Not To Be the Reason Your Kid Needs Therapy by Gwenna Laithland? Obviously because of the title! But imagine my shock as I'm listening to the audiobook and suddenly recognize the voice from Instagram! I was pleasantly surprised and instantly felt I could trust what was said!

How do I begin to sum up my love for this book? Simply put: I feel every parent could benefit from reading (or hearing) Laithland's words. I believe the no-nonsense approach works best and Laithland has this level of accessibility in spades, refusing to mince words with her honesty. I found myself nodding along, constantly having light-bulb moments and generally thinking, "Gwenna GETS me." This will become a comfort read of mine for those times a sense of community and comradery is needed!

Laithland herself narrates her book, and nobody else could read her words the way she does. I love the realness, the rawness and the no BS approach to Laithland's inflection and tone, which only reiterate the points made in the book.

Random chapter thoughts:
-as the good Momma I am, I reread chapter nine twice, as instructed
-that chapter on self care, though. I needed that one!
-I want to print out the Co-Regulation Appendix and keep it in my back pocket
-I had tears in my eyes as I finished the very last chapter

If it wasn't already clear, yes, I love and highly recommend this book!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Essentials and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary copies to read and review.

Why am I reading and loving a parenting book when I have no desire to be a parent?
Because Gwenna is funny and sarcastic and irreverent and compassionate and just the right kind of stubborn.
Because I still like kids, and for my niblings and friends' kids I want to be a safe adult for them. And that means more than I avoid intentionally harming them- it means I have to learn a bit about the Unintentional ways that adults can plant the seeds of harm when we forget what it's like to be a kid, and are "learning to person from scratch".
And as someone currently in the throes of therapy to deal with all the emotional learning that was missing from my childhood, the content of this book is So helpful in breaking down the complicated mess that is being a human-with-emotions into digestible concepts and strategies.

I devoured MOMMA CUSSES by Gwenna Laithland — it was like chicken soup for my soul with swear words and just what I needed. I listened to this on audio (thanks @macmillan.audio!) and I highly recommend it as she narrates it herself. I also had a kindle copy from @netgalley but enjoyed the audio so much I mostly stuck to that. I do want to purchase the hard copy to go back and reference though as I feel this will be a parenting/self help book that I will reference time and time again.

I think most parents feel like or are afraid that they’re messing their kids up. I know I’m one of those parents, and I found this book to be informative and so relatable. From Pinterest fails and social media illusions to car line rage, I was laughing out loud so often while doing the dishes that I was creeping my family out. Of course, I immediately went to her Instagram page and began following her (@mommacusses if you want to check her out). Gwenna doesn’t claim to be an expert, but she explains how we are the expert in knowing our own child and how working on ourselves leads to responsive parenting. This book was fantastic and a must for any parent.

A great ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read! Be sure to grab a copy — release day is this Tuesday 3/5!

Thank you @macmillan.audio and @stmartinsessentials for the early copies!

Here’s the thing. I have read a lot of parenting books. As someone who became a parent at the absurdly difficult age of 19, I needed parenting books. 10 years later, Gwenna shows up in my feed. I feel an immediate connection with her humor and parenting style.
Now I have read her book and I can say whole heartedly that this is the best parenting book I have ever read. Thank you Gwenna for your no bullshit approach and witty conversation. I will purchase this book not only for my shelves, but for all my friends who are parents as well.

I've followed Gwenna on social media for a while now and was excited to get my hands on this longer format book. What I enjoy about Gwenna online continues through this book, she's the mom friend we all need. This book is full of practical advice, relatable anecdotes and absolutely no judgement. She's been there, been messy and wants to help you learn from her experience, with the occasional cuss or quip to keep it interesting.

I wanted to read this because I listen to the podcast and follow the Instagram account of the author.

I was pregnant at the time of reading this book and I'm glad I read it. I'll likely buy a copy so I have it to reread when I'm ready to lose my mind when my baby becomes a toddler. I loved the tone and the way Gwenna addresses various situations. She does a good job of explaining her takes and her approaches.

This book would be useful for any stage of parent who is interested in a responsive rather than reactive parenting style. Whether you're pregnant or you're in the thick of things this book is helpful.

As a soon-to-be mom back in 2021, I came across a TikTok on my FYP from Momma Cusses about gentle parenting, but Gwenna was unlike any other gentle parent I’d ever seen. She respected her children and their emotional development while still maintaining her own voice/sense of humor and establishing clear boundaries 👏🏻

THIS was a type of parenting I could realistically envision, and I’ve been a big fan of hers ever since 🤩 Her teenage daughter wrote the forward, and my heart melted a little bit!

Here are some of my favorite topics that Gwenna covers in her book:

• Parenting intentionally and responsively
• Learning how to regulate yourself so you can help your child do the same
• Teaching that “No” means stop and listen, and the importance of providing context to help kids learn boundaries, risk assessment and critical thinking skills
• Playing with your kids doesn’t have to be Candyland all the time
• Taking care of yourself is taking care of your kids
• Examples of co-regulations, especially for toddlers!

There are some great nuggets of wisdom to take away from this book, but I have to say, I think I would’ve liked it better on audio (she narrates her own book!) 🎧 Gwenna has a distinct way with words and how she communicates an idea that works extremely well for me via TikTok but just didn’t pack quite the same punch for me in writing ✍️

I’ll also add that some parts of this also jumped around a lot and got repetitive, which she acknowledges and is self-aware of, but it got to be a bit much for me, especially when she made a lot of assumptions about what the reader was likely thinking and feeling to move the narrative along. For me at least, the assumptions were often off-base.

While I haven’t read many parenting books to compare this to and despite those few critiques, I did like it! I walked away overall with some good notes and another resource to help me on my parenting journey as my daughter has fully entered toddlerhood 🤪⚡️And that’s all I wanted to get out of it!

Thank you St. Martin's Press for my advance copy via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

MY REVIEW:
Gwenna Laithland became a TikTok sensation by being honest and vulnerable (and hilariously relatable) about life as a parent. So now she wrote a book that is NOT a parenting expert book (she makes that clear) but a book of what she has learned as a parent of her children that may be of use to other parents. She offers tools that facilitate a respective, responsive parenting that is authentic and grace-filled. Honestly, sometimes we laugh just to keep from crying. Reading this I felt like I was sitting at coffee with a friend who has been on this parenting path longer than I have and who has great advice, while still respecting me on my journey. It is absorbing and engaging, which is more than I can say for most parenting books. And the content is not only backed in psychology and behavioral science, but the concepts are presented clearly, are repeated, and are recapped at the end of each chapter so you can easily review them if needed. Needless to say, I'm now following her on social media so I can get more of the same!

Momma Cusses was a fun read! As parents, we constantly feel like we’re screwing up, and this book was packed with stories that make you feel less alone. While this isn’t. Parenting book, there are lots of helpful tidbits in there to slip into your parenting tool-belt. It’s like hearing advice from a favorite, non-judgmental aunt. I enjoyed it, and will likely go back and reference it!

I've followed Momma Cusses for years, so I was excited about this book. Unfortunately, I didn't really like it. It seemed to be filled with so many disclaimers throughout. The tone being so conversational took me out of the book too much. I just wanted more content. I recently read Love Your Kids Without Losing Yourself, which I think better states similar things to Laithland in a more useful way. I listened to the audiobook, which the author fabulously narrates. She has such a great voice and brings wonderful life to the text.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Let me start by saying that I am not a parent. I don't know if I'll ever have kids, but at this time, I do not have them. I still love and will be recommending this book to all those who have or are thinking of having their own crotch goblins.

The only bad thing to say about this book is that neither Gwenna nor her husband know how to make a PB&J. That's it.

Now for the good. Even as a non-parent I found this book relatable and informative and just funny. Gwenna takes the most basic of ideas that can be found on the parenting side of TicTok and makes them even easier to understand and with stories from her own life.

This is a reactive or gentle parenting book that presents this type of parenting in a really relatable, realistic way with real life examples of how the author has put it into practice. It's not new information, but when paired with other books on the topic, I think this is really helpful for getting a wider variety of thoughts on how to apply these ideas in real life.

This was fun! I’ve followed Gwenna for a while and always find her takes hilarious and refreshing and this book was no different !

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Gwenna Laithland calls herself a "parenting unexpert". She's like the rest of us parents: exhausted, overwhelmed, and not really knowing what the hell we're doing. "Momma Cusses" details her parenting journey with sharp wit and sarcasm that relate to the term "responsive parenting" while also providing suggestions to the reader about what she has done to mold her children into respectable members of society.

This book exceeded my expectations. Of course, when this was listed as a book to be released on NetGalley, I had to get ahold of it. The synopsis hooked me. I am a mother of twin sons, and life is a zoo with seemingly endless chaos. Gwenna's stories were not only relatable, but also great stories about what could be to come in my parenting journey.

Although Gwenna uses humor to detail "responsive parenting" and her story as a parent of a teenager and two small children, the book contained ways in which I had to have some uncomfortable introspection about how I am parenting my children as well as the ways in which I can improve myself to be a better parent to them. I appreciated how Gwenna continued stating that every child is different and that you know your child best. Many parenting books think that their word is God with little to no variation of whatever ideology it is they are trying to convey. Gwenna was flexible and realistic with her reader, which I loved.

If you are a parent, especially one with young children, and looking for a laugh and some advice that you can use, please pick this book up on March 5th!

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for this early copy of this book!

I follow Gwenna on Instagram and love her gentle parenting content. I love how she takes that "ick" people get out of gentle parenting and shows it for what it really is in a humorous and relatable way. It's not making our kids soft, it's teaching them to regulate their emotions and that their thoughts, opinions, and consent do really matter.

Throughout the entire book I heard it all in Gwenna's voice in my head, and I didn't even do the audiobook. If you enjoy following Gwenna and her content on social media, this book is absolutely for you. While reading the book, and now that I have completed it, I have found myself to be more intentional on the advice given. I have a highly sensitive child, and while I was already aware of and practicing a lot of the methods in this book, it was a reminder that I can do better. I can take a moment to reflect on my own reactions and do better for her. Thank you Gwenna, I hope you write some more!

One of the best parenting style books I’ve ever had the pleasure to delve into. Gwenna lays it all out on the table for parents to take the tidbits they need, when they need it! Her approach to responsive parenting is aspirations for me and I hope I can continue to learn and grow. I’ll keep reading this again and again for more inspiration and a little guidance when I need it!

There are so many parenting books out there that it gets hard to choose which one may be right for you. I knew this one was perfect for me by the cover alone! What I found when I got to reading it was a book that dealt with some of the worst parts of parenting in such a humorous way. It can be so hard to laugh about things when you're neck deep in dealing with it, but this book helped!
If you loved the book, I highly recommend following her on instagram and tik Tok, as she posts hilarious little nuggets there as well.
5/5 stars!

This was…ok. There are a few tidbits of good information and ideas here and there but it spends so much time on disclaimers and then most of the rest trying soooooo hard to be funny and witty about every single thing, that it overshadows most of the actual helpfulness. I do think for the right reader this book may help them feel seen in their struggles cause yah, parenting is hard. If you don’t have anyone to commiserate about that with, this book might help you feel a little less alone in the parenthood trenches. But for me, it wasn’t really anything new and it just felt kind of…exhausting…to get through.

Isn’t that all we want as parents? To work ourselves out of a job, because our kids have becoming decent at adulting? Perhaps adulting EVEN BETTER than their parents?

I’ve followed Gwenna (Gwenna, can I call you Gwenna?) for a few years, now, on Instagram (I know, she’s a TikTok sensation, but I’m 45, so…) and I’ve always enjoyed her blend of Gentle Parenting, Candid Speech, and Hair Colour.

Do I wish I’d had this book 15 years ago, when I had my own littles (including twins), yes.
Is having this book now, instead, still helpful? Also, yes.

I enjoyed her Field Guide, and TL:DR sections (I did read, tho, I swear), as well as her anecdotes.

I particularly appreciated both her repetition of things like, “Responsive Parenting isn’t Permissive Parenting”, “There is no such thing as a parenting expert”, and the word, “fuck”.

Have a kid? Read this book.
Want a kid? Read this book.
Love a kid? Read this book.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillain Audio for this hilariously helpful ARC.

This author is laugh out loud funny! I like the way they explain situations and don't alienate the audience. Overall, great book!