A Mother for All Seasons

by Debbie Phelps

Book Overview

While her son Michael thrilled the world with his record-setting eight-gold-medal performance during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Debbie Phelps stole the show. No Olympics coverage was complete without her, and she often appeared along side her son-and proved a much more compelling guest. After all, she was the one who drove him to all those pre-dawn practices, who raised him and his sisters alone, who told him he could succeed when doubts crept in,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061780014
• ISBN13: 9780061780011
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A true role model for women

Debbie Phelps is one amazing woman. The book demonstrates that she is a real person with real problems just like the rest of us. The difference...she handles every situation with grace and optimism. I had the pleasure of working for her for one year. Once you meet Mrs. Phelps, you will never forget her. She's someone to look up to!

How does she do it?

First of all, this is really a story about Debbie Phelps, not Michael Phelps. It's about her own upbringing, the decisions she made in her own life, and how she was able to raise an Olympic level competitive swimmer, along with his sisters who were also serious swimmers. In case you're wondering, she talks quite freely about her marriage and the strains which the competitive swimming put on that marriage, as well as about how ultimately she and Fred divorced (he remarried, while she did not). She also worked full-time as a teacher and later as an educational administrator (picking up a Master's degree along the way), all while raising three children and for many years commuting two hours a day to the pool and back where the children swam. I had hoped for a more introspective, less breezy style, but probably that's just me and that's not how Debbie Phelps see the world. With the exception of the demise of her marriage, she never "second guesses" herself, wondering things like 'did I push the kids too hard?', "Did Michael and his sisters get to have a happy childhood" and so forth. My kids swim, but not on any serious level like the Phelpses-- we flirted with serious swimming for awhile, but ultimately decided that the sacrifices required by the family and the children were too great FOR US. Phelps says some things in the book that kind of shocked me: She relates how they perhaps were slow to notice that Whitney, the oldest, had an eating disorder -- because they were so busy swimming. Whitney was sent off to a meet in Paris, France without either parent when she was TWELVE, where she proceeded to have a bad fall and get seriously injured. I can't quite imagine my child alone in a foreign country with a serious injury without me. I was also a bit disturbed by the three paragraphs where she explains that there was simply no time to attend church anymore and that instead, "the pool became our church" where they worshipped God with their physical prowess and built community with other swim families. (Our own family's decision to opt out of competitive swimming had something to do with NOT wanting the pool and Sunday swim meets to become our church.) One other aspect of the book that I found intriguing is that she alludes to hypercompetitive swim parents interfering with coaches and disgruntled parents politicking in the parking lot at swim practice -- but there's precious little discussion of whether the children had friends, or whether she had friends. I would have liked to know whether the other parents were jealous or supportive, and whether she felt embraced by the group or lonely as she parented her kids and helped them succeed. One thing is for sure -- she's a remarkable, brave woman who appears to have raised good kids who enjoy winning and yet still have good values and love their mom. I just wanted to hear more about how she did that. This book reads a little bit like a puff piece written by a public relations agent, rather

An Inspirational Mother

Always curious about the role of the family in the success of accomplished people, I was very interested in reading "A Mother for All Seasons". I wasn't disappointed. I became so engrossed in the details of the family life and of the steps in the development of the career of Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all times, that I couldn't put the book down. Debbie Phelps, Michael's mother, is an intelligent, fun-loving, caring, inspiring woman who played an important role in making him the champion he is today. By believing all dreams are possible and giving loving support, Debbie inspired in Michael a work ethic and the confidence to reach for any goal desired. Believing in and motivating her three children, Debbie Phelps inspired them to become independent and successful people. Along with a demanding career in education, she made sure she was involved in the important events of her children's lives. Interesting, instructive, and inspiring, the unadorned prose provides a clear window into the dynamic of this family.