Joanne Fedlers book "Love in the time of contempt" is a warm, funny, honest and sometimes confronting account of living with and trying to love your adolescents during a challenging time of contempt, blow offs and repeated rejections...she describes the losses of cuddles and kisses so vividly that it makes you want to hold onto your younger children (if u still have any!!) that much tighter. As always it's Joanne's candid honesty that strikes straight to the heart. I love her thoughts on staying connected and choosing your battles. It's Joanne's brave honesty in the sharing of her innermost private thoughts and feelings that makes this book so powerful! Joanne doesn't list a whole lot of parenting teen strategies on how to get it right but rather explores in a very deep and honest way the fundamental relationship between a mother and her children as they move into adolescence . Her level of insight into what it evokes in her as a mother and how it rubber bands her back to your adolescent past makes it all the more meaningful. This is a book that is starting conversations building connections and helping parents to feel less alone in a world where it no longer takes a village to raise a child. I will be recommending this book to everyone and anyone I meet both professionals and personally.

They say time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted, and it surely applies to parenthood too. Love in the Time of Contempt is a perfect addition to any parent’s armament, whether your children are teenagers yet are not. Aged 2 and 4, my kids are far from teenage-hood. (Incidentally, I had to interrupt reading this book to wipe their bums at exactly the spot Fedler refers to the upside of leaving that joyous aspect of parenting behind.) Nevertheless, I found it hugely beneficial to read Fedler’s book now.

Love in the Time of Contempt offers good advice, perspective, instruction, and reflection. It’s honest, funny, moving, and totally relatable and readable. Not everything Fedler writes sat well with me, but given that parenting teenagers will likely push me out of my comfort zone more (probably made harder by the fact that I was a very good teenager), rather Fedler’s warm and supportive book do it first. Her overall approach and observations are useful and valuable. I strongly recommend it.

Love in the Time of Contempt is compelling, confronting and beautifully written. If you are parent with adolescence still ahead of you, read it.

It's simple, you will find something worthwhile on every page if not in every paragraph of this book. It's not possible to do the book justice in a review. I loved it and after 17 years of parenting teenagers, I still found lots that was new and useful.
It's funny which is always helpful when dealing with teenagers. It's heart wrenching just as parenting teenagers is. It's easy and enjoyable to read. Beyond teenagers, this book helped me to laugh at the foibles and idiosyncrasies that are me as a parent. It helped me to stand back and reflect, to gather myself up, and to again resolve to do 'the best I can' for those I love.