Hands Free Mama

A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!

By: Rachel Macy Stafford

Narrated by: Rachel Stafford

Discover the power, joy, and love of living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions.

If technology is the new addiction, then multitasking is the new marching order. We check our email while cooking dinner, send a text while bathing the kids, and spend more time looking into electronic screens than into the eyes of our loved ones. With our never-ending to-do lists and jam-packed schedules, it's no wonder we're distracted.

But this isn't the way it has to be. Special education teacher, New York Times best-selling author, and mother Rachel Macy Stafford says enough is enough. Tired of losing track of what matters most in life, Rachel began practicing simple strategies that enabled her to momentarily let go of largely meaningless distractions and engage in meaningful soul-to-soul connections.

Finding balance doesn't mean giving up all technology forever. And it doesn't mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is seizing the little moments that life offers us to engage in real and meaningful interaction. In these pages, Rachel guides you through how to:

• Acknowledge the cost of your distraction
• Make purposeful connection with your family
• Give your kids the gift of your undivided attention
• Silence your inner critic
• Let go of the guilt from past mistakes
• And move forward with compassion and gratefulness

So join Rachel and go hands-free. Discover what happens when you choose to open your heart - and your hands - to the possibilities of each God-given moment.

©2014 Rachel Macy Stafford (P)2020 Zondervan

I couldn’t get into it

I love the concept, I’ll be using it in my own life but I just could not get into this book. I didn’t finish it. It just didn’t seem genuine. The constant use of adjectives to describe simple everyday tasks or experiences, literally used in every single sentence ...made it seem fictional. I’m sorry.

Eye opening, but

This book was a good eye opening read about the distractions of technology. I picked it up because i needed to mainly cut down my phone usage. Love the concept, but disliked her every day scenario of what she does hands free! No help on actually curving the addiction. Also the always being available for our children, agree, but the house has to be cleaned and dinner has to be made and no, I can’t stop washing the dishes to give my children my full attention 100% of the time. Sometimes, of course! All the time? Nope!

Exactly what I needed

I cried so many times because the stories resonated with my life so much.

Unhelpful and unnecessarily long

I will fully acknowledge that I find mindfulness practices to be both beneficial, but distinctly less helpful than practical tools and advice. Covering the concepts of mindfulness does not take 7 hours and the author did not provide practical or data-driven information about the application of mindfulness practices with regards to children.
I found the book incredibly difficult to get through, because it felt like the writing of a bad Hallmark movie. Self indulgent, sappy, and without substance.