Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters

Erica Komisar

Apr 2017 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

A powerful look at the importance of a mother’s presence in the first years of life

**Featured in The Wall Street Journal, and seen on Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and CBS New York**

In this important and empowering book, veteran psychoanalyst Erica Komisar explains why a mother's emotional and physical presence in her child's life--especially during the first three years--gives the child a greater chance of growing up emotionally healthy, happy, secure, and resilient.  

In other words, when it comes to connecting with your baby or toddler, more is more.

Compassionate and balanced, and focusing on the emotional health of children and moms alike, this book shows parents how to give their little ones the best chance for developing into healthy and loving adults. Based on more than two decades of clinical work, established psychoanalytic theory, and the most cutting-edge neurobiological research on caregiving, attachment, and brain development, Being There explains:

   • How to establish emotional connection with a newborn or young child--regardless of whether you're able to work part-time or stay home
   • How to ease transitions to minimize stress for your baby or toddler
   • How to select and train quality childcare 
   • What's true and false about widely held beliefs like "I'm not good with babies" and “I’ll make up for it when he’s older”
   • How to recognize and combat feelings of postpartum depression or boredom
   • Why three months of maternity leave is not long enough--and how parents can take control of their choices to provide for their family's emotional needs in the first three years

Being a new mom isn’t easy. But with support, emotional awareness, and coping skills, it can be the most magical—and essential—work we’ll ever do.

About the author

Erica Komisar, LCSW is a clinical social worker, psychoanalyst and parent guidance expert who has been in private practice in New York City for the last 25 years.  A graduate of Georgetown and Columbia Universities and The New York Freudian Society, Ms Komisar is a psychological consultant bringing parenting and work/life workshops to clinics, schools, corporations and childcare settings including The Garden House School, Goldman Sachs, Shearman and Sterling and SWFS Early Childhood Center. She lives is New York City with her husband, optometrist and social entrepreneur Dr. Jordan Kassalow, and their three teenage children.