Fantastic Friday: Mothers and Daughters

This post was supposed to go live on Mother’s Day, after my mom opened her gift. But one of my daughters (we are thinking the baby) gave me strep and a sinus infection, so we had to postpone a Mother’s Day celebration. It almost feels like the good old pandemic days!

Anyway. Knowing my mom, she probably has not yet opened the gift I left on the desk at her house and is waiting for the in-person get together, but mom, if you are reading this, this is your sign to open your gift 🙂

A month or two ago, I received a notification from a friend congratulating me that my story was in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. I hadn’t submitted any recently, so I was confused. Turns out, a story that had been published a while ago was being re-published in a new release (Mothers and Daughters edition).

The book came out in time for Mother’s Day, of course, but it was especially timely for me. Any teacher can tell you that May is a challenge, and on top of that, a baby who doesn’t sleep…I was worried I would not have something “homemade” for my mom. The timing of this book was perfect. My mom can revisit the story that she was part of, and she can also enjoy a hundred other stories of mother and daughter bonds, all while I recover with matching antibiotics with my own daughter.

Having kids of my own, I see how essential moms are to the world. One day a year isn’t enough!

To all the moms, past, present, and future, I wish you many moments worth writing about!

Press release:

Mother’s Day

COS COB, Conn. – Samantha LaBarbera’s mother was her family’s “beacon of positivity,” a young widow who always demonstrated positive thinking while she was raising her two children. As a grandmother, she showed her grandchildren how to live her mantra—“never give up”—when they walked block after block to find an elusive ice-cream truck at the beach.

Miriam Hill felt a little silly when she gave in to a gut feeling and called the Coast Guard, reporting that she believed her daughter and son-in-law were in trouble after they paddled their canoe to an island to go camping. Sure enough, she was right, and the Coast Guard had to rescue the young couple, with her daughter saying, “We never would have made it back alive if you hadn’t used your good judgment and called for help.”

Those are but two of the 101 stories of appreciation for mothers and grandmothers in a new collection of true, personal anecdotes, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Mothers & Daughters (March 19, 2024, 978-1-611591125, $16.99). There is something truly magical about the bond between mothers and daughters… and grandmothers, too. Sometimes, it’s hard to put those feelings into words, which is why Chicken Soup for the Soul has been so successful with its books about those special relationships, with stories that illustrate the ways in which these female family members admire and depend on each other.

“We make these books as a gift to moms, grandmothers, stepmothers, mothers-in-law, or honorary mothers, with stories that will make them laugh, tear up, nod their heads in recognition, and most importantly—know they’re appreciated,” says Chicken Soup for the Soul’s editor-in-chief Amy Newmark. “That appreciation is important, because mothers spend years imparting unsolicited advice and often don’t hear much gratitude until theirchildren are grown. This new collection of stories compiled from our library reassures mothers that their children are listening, learning, and loving them back—and that their daughters will probably grow up to be just like them!”

Of course, there’s nothing like a little family teasing as well, and this new collection contains plenty of stories that will make readers laugh. Gina Farella Howley, for example, relates an anecdote about the time her mother was sure she had won the lottery, except she was looking at a printout from the gas station that showed the winning numbers from the day before, and not at a winning ticket. After the family’s big celebration was interrupted by that realization, she made Gina swear she would never tell anyone. But what’s a daughter to do when she has that good a story?