Being A "Good-Enough Mother"

A lot has been going on in former Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler's life.

She recently had a double mastectomy as a preventative measure because both her parents had breast cancer.

"It was a process," she told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "It wasn't something we thought about and said, 'I'm going to have a double mastectomy.' It was a process over a period of years; a decision I had spoken with my doctors about it … I was in every year having a mammogram followed by a biopsy and it was too much."

Syler said most people supported her but she received some criticism that she was playing God.

"I said, 'Where in the Bible does it say I'm supposed to die a terrible death and my children have to watch that and be left without a mother? Where does it say that?' " she said. "At the end of the day it was my decision. It was not the decision for everyone but it was mine."

She also just released a book called "Good-Enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting," in which she says a "good-enough mother" is one who trades perfection for practicality. Syler has two children, daughter Casey and son Cole, and she has been forced to make due with her mothering limitations.

"I'm not a great cook," she said. " 'The Good-Enough Mother Cookbook,' which I'm working on, is going to be heavy on pop tarts and starches."

More importantly, she hopes her book will let women be at peace with the kind of mother they are.

"I think women are out there searching for answers," Syler said. "I say buy the book but the answers are not in the book. The answers are inside. You know instinctively how to care for your own children."

But Syler didn't always know that. Before she had her daughter, she was extremely nervous. A woman she didn't know well must have sensed Syler's apprehension because she felt moved to offer her some advice.

"You need to relax," Syler said the woman told her. "You and only you can be the best mother to that child. I took that with me and I took that to heart. I tell myself that all the time, especially when I'm screwing up."

Syler also takes lessons from her own mother, who worked and did the best she could, which Syler says is the key to being a "GEM."

"My mother was the first example of a 'good-enough mother,' " Syler said. "She worked during the day. She would come home and take care of us. Times were tough. We didn't have a lot of money. My parents didn't get along real great. She plugged away, plugged away. That's the lesson I really wanted to impart to viewers and readers."

After Syler gave birth to her daughter, she thought that having children was easy. Casey slept well, was quiet and always behaved in public.

"She tricked us into having another child because then along came gasoline, Cole," Syler said. "You know, I joke, he should have been named 'Get Down From There' because he's so spirited and so wonderful. Both of the kids are. They're such a great balance."

But Casey and Cole are not impressed with their mother's publishing success.

"Here's what they want to know," she said. " 'Are we going to get paid?' I said, 'How about you get to stay at home until you're 18 and I pay for your college?' "

Read an excerpt here or visit the Web site.

"Good-Enough Mother" is published by Simon spotlight entertainment, a division of Simon & Schuster which, like CBS News.com, is owned by the CBS Corporation.