Lynne Spears: 'Every Mother Makes Mistakes'

Lynne Spears: Lynne Spears says that even knowing what she knows now, she would still let her daughters Britney and Jamie Lynn pursue stardom.

"I think you have to let them follow their dreams," she says in a new interview with PEOPLE. "I think it would be worse in the end if you didn't."

But she does express regrets about not listening to her "gut" at times: "Was I the perfect mom? No."

In an exclusive excerpt from her new memoir, Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, Lynne, 53, details the highs " and lows " of her family's journey from Kentwood, La., to the harsh international spotlight. "Every mother makes mistakes," she writes, "and I'm no different."

"I wanted the truth out in my own words for myself and my family," she tells PEOPLE of writing the book, which chronicles Britney's highly publicized troubles and Jamie Lynn's pregnancy at 16. The latter, says Lynne, "was probably the hardest time in my life."