Mom knows best

Fairhope mom shares advice, lessons learned and calms fears with new book

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Three years ago, Margie Sims marked an important day: she attended kindergarten registration for her youngest child. But as she looked around the room, the veteran elementary school parent said she felt a little out of place.

The 51-year-old was there to register the last of her 10 children. In the room full of 20-something moms, Sims said it was plain she was entering a new phase of her own life, while still walking along a well-weathered, well-known path.

“It takes the sting out of getting older to be able to speak to these young moms,” she said.

Now Sims, of Fairhope, is doing much more than chatting with other moms at school meetings. Last fall she released her first book, “Launch: Preparing Your Kids For Takeoff,” a devotional full of family stories, lessons and dreams. 

Sims has always been a writer of parenting columns for magazines and while raising her 10 children kept a near daily blog. She dreamed of writing a book about her experience but life, or the birth of a new baby, always seemed to get in the way.

Her husband of 33 years, Robert, or Captain Fun as he is called in the stories, suggested that her book had already been written – in the tales told through her blog. Sims edited the tales into a book format and added a fitting scripture with each.

She also had all 10 of her children approve the public release of their stories. Her children currently range in age from 8 – 32. Sims also has two grandchildren.

“My seventh grader was a mischievous preschooler,” she said. “He wasn’t sure when we first started this process but when he read the final two stories he was ok with it.”

Sims said she was inspired to write by the moms who helped guide her along her own path of motherhood.

“They taught everything to me through the lens of being a mom,” she said. “I wanted to do for other moms what they did for me.”

Now Sims receives messages from young moms across the country, many of them fearful and uncertain as they face the challenges of the spreading coronavirus. Sims regularly posts an excerpt of the book on her public Facebook page to help guide young moms through the day. Many of her fans say her steady hand is just what they needed.

“People, especially now, need things that are uplifting and encouraging,” Sims said.

“Launch: Preparing Your Kids For Takeoff,” is available locally at Page & Palette and online at Amazon where it consistently rates in the top 10 percent of the 8 million titles available.