The kids are making you insane – again.

It’s not just because they’re whining or fighting or running amok or yelling or making another mess.

That’s only part of it. As much as you love your kids, you wonder if you’ll ever be a good mother to them. It makes you crazy, wondering if what you do now will make any difference when they’re grown.

Relax, says author Rene Syler. In her new book, “Good Enough Mother,” she says you can be “perfectly imperfect” and still raise great kids. You just need to slow down.

Syler is a busy woman. She’s the anchor for CBS’s “The Early Show,” which means she’s up and out of the house by 4 a.m. She’s the wife of TV exec Buff Parham. And she’s the mother of two pre-teens, Casey and Cole.

So how does Syler run her household?

She does it by being a “good-enough” mother, and she tells you how you can be good enough, too.

Syler says you don’t have to compete with super moms. Your kids don’t have to have the newest toys, the hand-decorated cupcakes for school, the designer jeans or latest-fad shoes. Goodie bags for birthday parties don’t have to be designer bags. Halloween costumes don’t have to be straight out of magazines. In fact, Syler suggests considering her motto: “I don’t care.”

You shouldn’t care if the cupcakes you take to a school party are really from the bakery. Why worry if the house is a little messy? Breakfast can be dinner with the “I don’t care” attitude, as long as your kids are getting proper nutrition. You can set a few rules and choose your arguments.

You’re a good enough mom, Syler says, as long as you learn to balance your own life sans kids, give your children plenty of love and support, and do your best. And — more than toys or fancy clothes — your best is what your kids really need.

Syler’s basic advice is sound: Relax, don’t worry so much, don’t forget to take care of yourself, and enjoy your kids. Forget the mess, ease up on the strict rules, laugh often, and play.

On the other hand, I thought Syler was a little out of touch with many of her target readers. She writes about having wine with a friend while her kids blow through $70 worth of tokens at a local restaurant-arcade (a slight exaggeration, she admits, but for sure “an ungodly amount of tokens”). She talks about why her daughter has three GameBoys (not mentioning what her son owns, nor that the kids have a PlayStation). She mentions paying ten times the normal cost of an item because it was hard to find and her son wanted to give it to a classmate.

If you’re new to parenting, this is a good enough book, although there should be a healthy dose of reading-between the lines. If you’re looking for a parenting book for real life, though, “Good-Enough Mother” only so-so.

Terri Schlichenmeyer never goes anywhere without a book. She lives in West Salem, Wisc., with her husband, three dogs and 9800 books.