This isn't a parenting book.
This isn't a guide to being a perfect parent (spoiler: they don't exist)
This is a book about you.

We can only anchor, nurture, nourish and instill confidence in our children when we extend the same support to ourselves. After all, how can we effectively tend to our children's needs when our energy reserves are depleted? How can we lead by example and teach our children the importance of healthy self-esteem if we are struggling with these things ourselves? There are a thousand and one ways to parent, and only one way that's authentic for you.

Drawing on her work as a psychotherapist, alongside her own experiences as a mother, Anna shows that caring with our children begins with caring for ourselves, and it's time to replace exhaustion with empowerment. Far from being selfish, self-care is an essential quality of a happier mother good parent. The greatest gift you can give to to yourself and your children, is to give yourself permission to thrive.
How to Be the Mum You Want to Be unpicks the myth of perfect motherhood and reframes what 'a good mother' looks like. Using her own experience as a mum combined with therapy expertise, psychotherapist Anna Mathur provides a toolkit for becoming a calmer, more patient and more resilient mum. Dismantling how mums come to set impossible expectations of themselves, the book offers evidence-based therapy guidance and tackles taboo subjects such as maternal rage and intrusive thoughts in depth and detail. Anna will compassionately but firmly empower mums with practical ways to learn to trust their gut, see how well they are doing, set realistic standards - and to define which standards are actually important - and therefore see what a great mum they already are. Each chapter provides strategies for reframing 'competency' in motherhood, to take the pressure off and focus on the issues that truly matter. Containing case studies, journaling prompts and tools that are simple to implement even when sleep deprived. This book will help mums understand that they are the best mum they can be, they just need to see it.