Never Sit If You Can Dance: Lessons from my Mother

What are some lessons that your mom has taught you? As you got older, what are some of her habits that you have incorporated in your life, or tried to adopt? Jo Giese published the lessons that she learned from her mom, Babe, in this sweet book called Never Sit if You Can Dance. And yes, that is indeed the first lesson.

Jo’s mother, Babe, liked to drink, dance, and stay up very late. When the husband she adored went on sales calls, she waited for him in the parking lot, embroidering pillowcases. Jo grew up thinking that the last thing she wanted was to be like her mother. Then it dawned on her that her own happiness was derived in large part from lessons Babe had taught her. Her mother might have had tomato aspic and stewed rhubarb in her fridge, while Jo had organic kale and almond milk in hers, but in more important ways they were much closer in spirit than Jo had once thought.

At a turbulent time in America, Never Sit if You Can Dance offers uplifting lessons in old-fashioned civility that will ring true with mothers, daughters, and their families. Told with lighthearted good humor, it’s a charming tale of the way things used to be—and probably still should be. 

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Why I chose to read Never Sit if You Can Dance

I have learned a lot from my mom, especially since moving away from her, and I have always wondered what kind of things people have learned from their mothers. When I saw Never Sit if You Can Dance on BookSirens up for reviewers, I thought it would be a great book to get some of Jo’s insights. As much as this is a book about lessons learned, it is also a book about the life of Babe.

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Themes for Thought

Never Sit if You Can Dance: Lessons from my mother is full of a lifetime of wisdom, feelings from childhood and keeping a connection with one’s parent as she grows old – Jo’s story about the things she learned from her mom, Babe, was elegant and beautiful. 

On Lessons Learned

This book is composed on 14 lessons in all. Each lesson comes with a beautiful story, which is sometimes an observation about Babe and her habits, and other times, Jo goes into how it affected her. There are 5 lessons that spoke to me the most:

• Maybe we all need someone waiting for us in the parking lot.

How many times have you felt that you needed someone to be there at the beginning and end of a momentous event in your life? Whether it was an interview, or buying something for the first time, as you walked out of the car, into the building with a purpose, butterflies of excitment or nervousness in your tummy, all you really wanted was for it to be over. And while you were in that situation, you knew that someone was waiting outside for you. That no matter what happened, whether you got that job or not, you still had this person in your life.

I love this lessons because it speaks so much to how much we care about certain people in our lives. My mom was the one waiting for me in the parking lot for every big exam I gave, whether it was GRE or TOEFL to apply to Canadian universities. Even if she did not wait in the parking lot the whole time, she was always there are at the end of it. She was always there to meet me and listen, no matter how it all went.

• Never show-up empty handed.

This is a lesson that I sometimes forget and have gotten in trouble for. Whether it is a bottle of wine to bring to dinner, desert to pick up on the way or a greeting card for an occasion, it is just good manners to bring something, especially if you are going to someone (other than family’s) place. With family, I always ask if they need anything.

Though this is about physical things, I think it is also about showing up and saying something that shows you care.

• Never leave a compliment unsaid.

I suck at giving compliments, and that is partly why I love this lesson. 🙂

• Make the best of it.

Isn’t the the hardest thing to do? There are times in our lives when everything feels like a disaster and we are stuck in a cycle of thinking and ruminating but ultimately, we can’t change the past and have to make the best out of it. It is ok to feel the emotions and take sometime to think things through, but ultimately, we have to take charge of the situation and move on.

On Celebrating Life

I think one of the most important lessons was that sometimes life begins again at ninety-five. Babe is a lovely character and I loved her spirit. As Jo says in the introduction:

Taken together, these lessons show there’s a celebratory life waiting for each of us – if we embrace it.

I could not agree more and this is a takeaway I will remember along with the other lessons that were shared.

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A post shared by Kriti Khare (@_armedwithabook) on Jul 17, 2019 at 7:31pm PDT

This is not a long read but I would recommend taking your time reading it and letting Jo’s experience with Babe let you reflect on your relationship with your daughter/mom. I thought about my mom throughout this book and noted multiple instances where Jo’s experiences matched mine. It did not matter that I grew up in the 90s – many elements of the mother-daughter relationship stayed the same. 

I am thankful to the author, the publisher and BookSirens for making the complimentary copy of the book available to me in exchange for an honest review. This is a book I will go back to in coming years. I loved this book and would highly recommend it. Stop by tomorrow to read my chat with Jo about Babe and this book.

** Never Sit If You Can Dance is now out in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! Let’s have a book-discussion! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle

Cover image: Photo by Andrew Tanglao on Unsplash