Reviews and Deals

Have you ever said to yourself “I am the crappiest mother in the universe?” Personally, I’m saying it to myself right now after the day I’ve had. Mr. Plain isn’t going to be home until after kid bedtime, what the new puppy isn’t peeing on she’s trying to chew up, and the boys have been on a serious rampage of bad behavior.

It is really tempting to take the “fun” and “excitement” of a day like today and only remember the times I yelled or otherwise lost my mind, but instead I’m sitting here making myself remember the good parts of the day. For example, Mike and I had fun playing Dinosaur bingo, and… well that’s the only highlight I can remember from today so far. And that’s going to have to be enough.

And I know one person who would tell me that today I was a Perfectly Good Mother: Ann Dunnewold, Ph. D. She’s the author of a new parenting book called “Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box: Cut Yourself Some Slack (and Still Raise Great Kids) in the Age of Extreme Parenting.”

Putting aside the obvious problem of the far-too-long-and-colon-ed title, this is a fantastic book. I typically LOATHE parenting books because they come off so preachy and my-way-or-the-highway, but this book is relaxing.

It doesn’t tell you to start slacking off and merely make sure that your offspring stay alive (or “off the pole”), but it does remind you that if you need to take an afternoon and parent like that in order to save your sanity, don’t sweat it. Your kids won’t become hatchet murderers because of an afternoon of benign neglect.

I started folding the corners of pages that had sections that spoke to me, and I would have done better just dunking the entire work in a bucket of highlighter ink. I only had time to read about 5 pages in a sitting (surprise) so I dragged it along with me wherever I went. Consequently it is stained, bent, rippled from a coffee spill (yeah, coffee, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), and scraped up as if I dragged it behind my car. (Did I? Hmmm… I no longer remember.)

But even battle-worn, this book has a place of honor on my bookshelf. It is another voice in the chorus of anti-competimommies shouting that you can be a great Mom without giving up your soul. Without leaving behind everything that is unique about yourself as a person. Without turning yourself into a machine for cranking out perfection in a size 5T. Relax moms, we’re all doing a Perfectly Good Job.