Pilates for Parenting by Holli Kenley
Holli Kenley
Loving Healing Press (2019)
ISBN: 9781615994878
Reviewed by Rachel Dehning for Readers View (6/20)
Holli Kenley’s latest book, Pilates for Parenting, is an important and impactful read. I had never heard of the correlation made between exercise and parenting, but Kenley flows the two together effortlessly. Much like exercise is important for the positive functioning of your body, learning to “stretch,” “strengthen,” and “balance” your parenting techniques is important for the positive functioning of your relationships.
Understanding the importance of exercise to strengthen your body, it only makes sense that for something as important as parenting, there should be workouts for it as well. We should think of Kenley as our trainer; her routine initially includes a warmup, much like a personal pep talk, followed by a workout for each parenting topic, which includes two to three exercises to perform in each workout. The workouts are meant to be done purposefully, so rushing and not putting your heart into the work is not proper grounds to move forward.
Kenley includes research to back up her claims about the proper parenting styles and the obstacles that parents must overcome in this day and age, namely, technology and social media. She includes three Appendixes at the end to aid us parents who need her help and refreshingly speaks openly about personal experiences that pertain to each topic.
Holli Kenley’s “Pilates for Parenting” can be used by any parent raising children in today’s society. I love that in the book, she emphasizes the fact that even if the reader starts discovering things they need to work on, that you shouldn’t let that keep you down- learning to forgive and correct is part of the journey. She writes inclusively and with compassion. I can’t say enough good things about her and this book because if people will take her words to heart, it is true that not only family relationships will improve, but also relationships in the community and around the world.
Reprinted with permission from Reader Views
Sherry Lynn Jones
Why you are uniquely qualified to write this book?
I can tell these stories because I have lived them and know the difference between dramatic representations and real life. Like many, I grew up watching the EMS and ER shows on television that focused on the hero aspect, providing predictable outcomes, and an unrealistic percentage of happy endings. Although television and movie depictions are more factual these days, the truth about how the emergency worker feels remains mostly hidden. My slant is in telling another side of the story: what responders think and feel during calls, how they internalize tragedy, what happens after the call, and how our world turns upside down when the patient is someone we love.
Why did you write this book?
When I tell people what I do, they focus on the gory side of life, like those who cannot look away from the scene of a bad accident. What they do not realize until it happens to them is that trauma affects someone who is loved and cherished, and lives are forever changed. I want people to see the world for a moment through my eyes, to walk with me through the broken glass, to sit next to me and hold the hand of the injured or dying, to fight against death thinking that sometimes we just might have the power to win those battles. And then I want them to see the complete lunacy of it all and laugh.
What do you think readers will get out of it?
I am hoping that readers will see emergency service workers in a new light and realize we are human, too. We have our own challenges, pains, and sorrows. We have had surgeries, major illnesses, broken bones, and our share of emotional scars. We have been in accidents, our backs are killing us from lifting, and our feet ache after shifts that last from 12 to 24 hours, often without a break. We also realize the importance of last words, how sometimes the sound of an “I love you” has to last a lifetime.
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