Dena Higley worked hard to have it all and wanted to make sure people knew it: successful daytime drama writing career, lasting marriage and four successful children.
But perception is rarely reality.
Momaholic: Crazy Confessions of a Helicopter Parent (Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-0-8499-4736-0, $15.99, May 2012) is a look into one woman’s private, dramatic and often comical life when everything fell apart, causing her to take an honest look at what she was doing right and what she’d been doing terribly wrong. With this discovery, her wacky family’s season of becoming unraveled found a new glue that would re-bond her family and unite them in a deeper and more functional way than ever before.
Meet the real life characters:
- A MOM who is literally the head writer of a network soap opera … at work and at home;
- A HUSBAND who can’t help but scratch his head in frustration as his family’s troubles seem to spiral out of his control;
- an autistic SON;
- a popular DAUGHTER who is suddenly pregnant;
- an ADOPTED DAUGHTER pulled from the jungles of Vietnam; and
- an ADOPTED SON rescued from the streets of Ethiopia.
This story shows the speed at which a “normal” family can fall apart. With the family running around as the tornado sirens roared warnings to take cover, mom becomes the biggest mess of all and ends up finding a whole new freedom for her soul.
“What I want is to be adored and worshiped by everyone in my family, by everyone at work and by everyone I ever have met or ever will meet,” says Higley. “Of course that’s not going to happen. It’s unrealistic, self-indulgent, grandiose … and unattainable. Most of all, it’s the last thing I really need.”
Dena Higley, an Emmy award-winning writer, has been the head writer for both Days of Our Lives and One Life to Live as well as a playwright in Glendale, Calif. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Theatre, where she studied acting under the late John Houseman. She currently resides in La Canada-Flintridge, Calif., with her husband of 24 years, Mark. They have four children and one grandchild.
About Stephanie Newton
