The Blessing of a Skinned Knee

Gayle Schrier Smith M.D. • Oct 11, 2016

The title of this book caught my eye right off the bat, and the mother who sent it to me is raising one of my all time favorite families.  You may know her as the lady who created the breakfast cookies we sometimes bake for the patients.  As I opened the Blessing of a Skinned Knee, I loved the writer’s voice and the way a young Wendy Mogel spoke to my ‘mom heart’ as she shared stories about raising children and watching them learn from their mistakes.  I’ve read and re-read this first of her books, and it made me wondered what her other books might be like.

Wendy Mogel’s newer book titles hint that the voice I loved so much in the Blessing of a Skinned Knee has not changed much. Rather, her skinned knee’d children have grown into middle and high school adolescents prompting book two (The Blessing of a Broken Heart) and book three (The Blessing of a B-).  The idea is that our children’s failures and shortcomings are all part of what we must endure in order to see them grow up.

So I went out and bought her other two books.  I think she’s the kind of doctor with whom I want to have more in common.  Maybe she’ll swing by for a cup of coffee and visit one day … or maybe she’ll read the DrDownload and find out that she, too, can make cookies for breakfast.  Thanks for reminding us that our children must make mistakes in order to grow and thrive.

The DrDownload Blog

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