Between Mother and Daughter: A Teenager and Her Mom Share the Secrets of a Strong Relationship

by Judy Ford, Amanda Ford

Written by family therapist and bestselling author Judy Ford and her nineteen-year-old daughter Amanda, Between Mother & Daughter is geared toward both mothers and teenage girls who want to maintain or create healthy relationships during the tumultuous teen years. This book is proof of the benefit of positive parenting to empower mothers and daughters.

Genres: Parenting

275 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

LCSW

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book when my oldest daughter was about 9 years old. It was too early for a lot of the information, but it helped me to form an approach to discipline and relationship going forward. I recommend reading this book by the time your child is 10 or 11 and then again when they are 15 or 16.

[Stephanie P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Between Mother and Daughter written by Judy and Amanda Ford was an okay story. I actually didn’t really enjoy all but a few of the over 20 chapters. I would give this book a 2 out of 5 stars. Perhaps I was too young to read the book since I think it was targeted more for mothers, but I didn’t really like it at all. I enjoyed the chapters on issues that are big in effecting my friends and my family members such as self image issues and drug abuse. I enjoyed reading these chapters because it was a new point of view on situations I am constantly concerned with being a high school student. Judy Ford is a family therapist and Amanda Ford is her daughter. The book was written with the purpose of advising mothers and daughters on how to have a good relationship without being unrealistic in their ideas of how to fix it all. I did not find Judy’s advice realistic or creative. She stuck to the “talk it out” method which I really got sick of hearing different ways for her to say “talk it out”.
The book began with how to first diagnose the type of relationship you and your daughter had. There was questions and situations to put yourself in with options on reactions. After that began into the most basic reasons mothers and daughters fight. These reasons spanned from basic quarrels to self image problems and development to drugs and alcohol. The capturing part of each chapter was the mini story or scenario at the beginning of each chapter about either Judy and Amanda or another mother or daughter that had written in. “Immediately after her birth, I was thrown into the seemingly contradictory task of caring intensely while graciously letting go” (Ford, 4). The quote above is important to the book because it sets the president for the book and how Judy felt about her daughter and being a mother. Motherhood was thrust upon her and she was scared. This sets how the book is going to be laid out, giving a background on their relationship from day one, at least in the eyes of Judy. All in all, I would recommend this book to mothers of teenage daughters, but not to teenage daughters so much seeing as it was uninteresting and boring. I think the book was well written for an older audience but not for a younger audience.

[Simply Love Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both my daughter and I read this the summer prior to my daughter going into 9th grade. I LOVED the fact the book had both mother and daughter's point of view. I took a lot of what was in this book and applied it to our lives. My daughter graduated Cum Laude from high school 3 weeks ago and will be attending a university in August, she was highly successful in academics and extra curricular activities, has excallent reputation with the High School staff and is respected and looked up to by her peers. I am not saying this book is the cause of her success, I am saying, some of tips and information were very helpful in the way my daughter and I got through the ages of 14 - 18 =)

[Kristan Kirkreit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned quite a bit from this book and will probably go out and buy myself a copy so I can refer to it when needed. I skipped around so I can see what they went through in specific situations that I was going through. I have really learne that parent/teenage relationship is about compromise. Which I am working on :)

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shares the same situation written from the mom perspective and then the daughter. It opened my eyes to more than a few things. Great info for parenting a teen daughter

[Maria Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great book. I would like to have read it 2 years ago!

[Susanna]

Giving up on this book. It came recommended and I thought it would be useful, but I found it dull and predictable.

[Lisa]

Parenting