Matt Sweetwood

5 years ago · 2 min. reading time · ~10 ·

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My "Leader of the Pack" Book Gets Front Page Coverage!

My "Leader of the Pack" Book Gets Front Page Coverage!

That moment when your new book, "Leader Of The Pack," gets featured on the front page of one of NJ's Largest publications. That's 4 years of hard work and still going!

From the article: ..."

But the tale behind it borders on fiction, achieved despite monumental personal odds. His family’s journey incorporates elements of a mystery/thriller.

Sweetwood met his first wife Charlotte while he was still largely an inexperienced college math nerd: “I dove into our relationship with both feet and no brains.”

What followed was nightmare.

"Leader of the Pack: How a Single Dad of Five Led His Kids, His Business, and Himself from Disaster to Success," culminates in Sweetwood’s greatest achievement — raising five successful children to adulthood as a single dad. 

"Leader of the Pack," from Bookbaby Publishing, hit Amazon No. 1 in new self-help book releases earlier this month; it’s now available in paperback."

Download Leader of the Pack Here

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Leader of the Pack is the story of a man who, like many men, had been going through his life apparently content and positively clueless, who found himself tethered to a tornado as his marriage descended into violence and madness. Surviving courts and cops and chaos and a crazy-challenging-business, he unexpectedly ended up the only parent of five small children--ranging in age from only 18 months to 8 years old—at a time when most men didn’t even know how to change a diaper. It is my story.


In it, I detail the transformation I underwent from sole breadwinner to sole parent, from a beaten abused shell of a man to the strong, confident and spiritual person I am today; a nationally recognized spokesman for single dads and entrepreneurs.

Though the facts of my story may be different than some, the feelings are the same for single father’s everywhere. We are frustrated. We’re no longer just the backup parent; the ringer sent in when Mom isn’t available — though that was all we had ever been trained for when it came to parenting. It’s not that we don’t love our children. We do, but that and $5 will get you a latte at Starbucks.

We are told by many voices (and silent looks) from counselors, teachers, social workers, judges and our mothers, sisters and ex-wives that we aren’t as capable of raising kids as a woman. We may even feel that assessment is true. We feel helpless and undermined and above all, alone in this.

But we are not alone.

A quarter of all American households are headed by men who find themselves or choose to be single dads. We need to own that position, be proud of it, figure out the best way to make it work and above all, add our voice to a swelling chorus of support for our brothers who find themselves in our same shoes.

We must learn to parent like a dad and that does not mean being only half of a team. In my life, and in the lives of millions of men today, we are the parent. Where there were two, now there is one and we must be enough.

Lives depend on it…our kid’s lives.

We could win our kids, raise them to be happy and healthy people and manage to have a big, fun, and exciting life while we were doing so. Life wasn’t over for us. In fact, it was just beginning and beyond the doors swinging open lay a road we never could have foreseen—one filled with adventure and laughter and even sex.

I surely never would have believed it. On the day my life changed forever, I looked wildly around any means of escape, but all I saw were their pale and frightened faces, staring up at me. Five little kids, the oldest was only eight and the youngest still a toddler—my kids—all mine now. Their mother had staged one last violent, terrifying episode and left us forever. Where there were once two-parents, there was now only one.

It felt like something had torn a large hole in my chest and ripped out my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. Then the breath rushed back in and I heard the most heartbreaking crying. It wasn’t until later that I realized the sound was coming from me.


Comments

Adela Garcia

5 years ago #6

Congrats!!

Fran 🐝 Brizzolis

5 years ago #5

Congrats Matt Sweetwood. Great job!

Larry Boyer

5 years ago #4

Congratulations Matt Sweetwood!

Irene 🐝 Rodriesco

5 years ago #3

Congratulations for the interview, and book sales. Congratulations for dismantling a stereotype. In the brief account of the interview, there are so many questions that I can think of. I agree that there are events that lead you "to change" or to break you, but ...Did he really change or did he recover his self as a person? When breaking you, is not an option, because there is someone who depends on you, (in my case reencounter my self how a person, my passions, me, over the socially correct) we turn our sons and daughters into pillars on which to support, we get up for our sons and daughters. The order of the factors does not alter the product.

Matt Sweetwood

5 years ago #2

#1
Thank you Graham!

Graham🐝 Edwards

5 years ago #1

Congratulations Matt Sweetwood

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