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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I get like this was a lot of complaining from someone privileged enough to have a lot of help. And she focuses on every negative of parenting. I couldn’t handle all the complaining and didn’t want to waste my time listening anymore.
I liked this less than I thought I would but that doesn't mean anything was "wrong" with it per se. I just found it a lot sadder and related to it a lot less than expected. It was funny, it was witty, it was well-written, a lot of what she talks about is so true and accurate on many levels. And yet.
And yet.
Another review I just read sums up my reaction perfectly:
I'm the ideal audience for this book-- I had my first child [in my mids 30s] and I'm a privileged white woman. Yet, is anyone as privileged as Jessi Klein? The money and resources Klein had access to was substantial. So, even though she had plenty of accurate and at times funny insights into motherhood it really didn't feel relatable or that she should be the voice of new moms. Also, I'm not sure why she was SO surprised at EVERYTHING related to babies when she was into her 40s having her first kid. She had plenty of time and money to educate herself. I think she tried to take the angle "us ladies don't have ANY information before becoming moms!!" but um, no, a lot of us have valued motherhood prior to becoming moms and took the time to learn things. I don't know, the whole thing was just weird even if much of the content was reasonably enjoyable.
Thank you Lauren for encapsulating thoughts when Im too lazy to.
I was also listening to the audio book of this before bed, and kinda found it too much of a bummer to listen to before bed.
And yet.
Another review I just read sums up my reaction perfectly:
I'm the ideal audience for this book-- I had my first child [in my mids 30s] and I'm a privileged white woman. Yet, is anyone as privileged as Jessi Klein? The money and resources Klein had access to was substantial. So, even though she had plenty of accurate and at times funny insights into motherhood it really didn't feel relatable or that she should be the voice of new moms. Also, I'm not sure why she was SO surprised at EVERYTHING related to babies when she was into her 40s having her first kid. She had plenty of time and money to educate herself. I think she tried to take the angle "us ladies don't have ANY information before becoming moms!!" but um, no, a lot of us have valued motherhood prior to becoming moms and took the time to learn things. I don't know, the whole thing was just weird even if much of the content was reasonably enjoyable.
Thank you Lauren for encapsulating thoughts when Im too lazy to.
I was also listening to the audio book of this before bed, and kinda found it too much of a bummer to listen to before bed.
I love this book, I cannot say enough about it. It is balm for my mama soul. I want to gift it to every mother I know. Read it.
Wow, these reviews have really driven home the fact that the biggest mom-haters on the planet are other moms. It’s okay to not have liked this book. It’s okay to feel like it wasn’t relatable for you, but the judgements and mom shaming are really something else. Yikes. Motherhood is hard. Some of us have the help of friends and family, some have hired help or no help, some of us have mental health issues that exacerbate the difficulties of parenthood and some of us have physical health issues and disabilities that do the same. This isn’t the struggle Olympics and yours don't invalidate someone else's.
My experience of motherhood is very different than Jessi’s in many ways. I adopted my two sons, so I did not experience pregnancy and birth and the difficulty of having a body healing while trying to survive the newborn stage. And I am a single mother, and when I had a newborn, I did not have the help of a partner, or a night nurse, a nanny, nor family. But despite these differences, Jessi feels like a kindred spirit to me.
I didn't become a mom until I was 40, so her thoughts on aging, and being a parent in your 40s especially resonated with me. I laughed out loud many times reading this book. And I said “omg” so many times, because someone was saying something out loud that I’ve thought so many times, and it was so validating, and I felt less alone. I loved this book. Thank you Jessi for writing it.
My experience of motherhood is very different than Jessi’s in many ways. I adopted my two sons, so I did not experience pregnancy and birth and the difficulty of having a body healing while trying to survive the newborn stage. And I am a single mother, and when I had a newborn, I did not have the help of a partner, or a night nurse, a nanny, nor family. But despite these differences, Jessi feels like a kindred spirit to me.
I didn't become a mom until I was 40, so her thoughts on aging, and being a parent in your 40s especially resonated with me. I laughed out loud many times reading this book. And I said “omg” so many times, because someone was saying something out loud that I’ve thought so many times, and it was so validating, and I felt less alone. I loved this book. Thank you Jessi for writing it.
I planned on giving this book 5 stars, but then I got to the chapter where Klein refers to John Lennon as one of the best Beatles. Nope. Try the worst Beatle - the one who abused his wives and assaulted a waitress. You lost me there, Jessi. As a fellow feminist, I’m flabbergasted that Klein doesn’t know this.
The book also lacked fabric, color, depth in the stories. Klein waxes on with brilliant philosophy and powerful social commentary, but I couldn’t see any of her experiences in my mind while reading this book. Instead, I heard her voice. I’m a fan of her standup and writing, and her voiceover work on Big Mouth. So I could hear her in my head effortlessly. That made the book feel more like hanging out and complaining with a friend. She did make me lol throughout. I felt grateful to read that we experienced many of the same hiccups in parenting - the twisted car seat belt, hello!!! Unlike other reviewers, I did not find her to complain too much about parenting. She clearly adores her son. She just didn’t include long descriptive fleshed out scenes showing this. Perhaps this book should be read more as a series of standup monologues, created in the line of comedy, rather than memoir.
The book also lacked fabric, color, depth in the stories. Klein waxes on with brilliant philosophy and powerful social commentary, but I couldn’t see any of her experiences in my mind while reading this book. Instead, I heard her voice. I’m a fan of her standup and writing, and her voiceover work on Big Mouth. So I could hear her in my head effortlessly. That made the book feel more like hanging out and complaining with a friend. She did make me lol throughout. I felt grateful to read that we experienced many of the same hiccups in parenting - the twisted car seat belt, hello!!! Unlike other reviewers, I did not find her to complain too much about parenting. She clearly adores her son. She just didn’t include long descriptive fleshed out scenes showing this. Perhaps this book should be read more as a series of standup monologues, created in the line of comedy, rather than memoir.
Best for:
New moms looking for some solidarity.
In a nutshell:
Author Jessi Klein shares brutally honest stories from her life raising a tiny human as an older mother.
Worth quoting:
If I’d had a hard copy I’d probably have underlined a bunch, but it was an audio book, so I didn’t capture any.
Why I chose it:
I generally like her stuff.
Review:
I don’t have kids, and I’m not having kids. So this book is not for me, and my review should be read from that lens. My review is for other people like me, who might be thinking about picking this book up even though they don’t have any kids, nor do they want any. But maybe they have friends who do.
Klein’s writing reminds me a bit of a previous book I read - “All Joy and No Fun.” I absolutely get that Klein loves her son, and I even get the sense that she is happy being a mother. But being a mother, as described by her, sounds brutal. Like, really, really rough. And she has access to a nanny and had a lot of support. Like, if it was just a matter of it ‘taking a village,’ she should be all set. And yet she clearly isn’t.
One thing that stuck with me was the advice her son’s teacher gave about putting together small books when changes are coming, to walk the child through the change so he can be prepared. Man, that’s a great idea. I might start doing that for myself for changes, just to keep myself calm.
I don’t think that parenting is easy for the primary caregiver really ever. But my goodness, this book definitely makes it sound like something pretty freaking brutal. And honestly, probably more people could benefit from some of this type of frank discussion if they are at all on the fence about having kids.
Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it (if I had a physical copy)
New moms looking for some solidarity.
In a nutshell:
Author Jessi Klein shares brutally honest stories from her life raising a tiny human as an older mother.
Worth quoting:
If I’d had a hard copy I’d probably have underlined a bunch, but it was an audio book, so I didn’t capture any.
Why I chose it:
I generally like her stuff.
Review:
I don’t have kids, and I’m not having kids. So this book is not for me, and my review should be read from that lens. My review is for other people like me, who might be thinking about picking this book up even though they don’t have any kids, nor do they want any. But maybe they have friends who do.
Klein’s writing reminds me a bit of a previous book I read - “All Joy and No Fun.” I absolutely get that Klein loves her son, and I even get the sense that she is happy being a mother. But being a mother, as described by her, sounds brutal. Like, really, really rough. And she has access to a nanny and had a lot of support. Like, if it was just a matter of it ‘taking a village,’ she should be all set. And yet she clearly isn’t.
One thing that stuck with me was the advice her son’s teacher gave about putting together small books when changes are coming, to walk the child through the change so he can be prepared. Man, that’s a great idea. I might start doing that for myself for changes, just to keep myself calm.
I don’t think that parenting is easy for the primary caregiver really ever. But my goodness, this book definitely makes it sound like something pretty freaking brutal. And honestly, probably more people could benefit from some of this type of frank discussion if they are at all on the fence about having kids.
Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it (if I had a physical copy)
I am glad this author was able to show that even with a nanny during the day and a night time nanny, motherhood is still so hard! That extra help means, however, this narrative reads more about the experience of getting older for a wealthy white woman who is so perplexed by life (in general) and a new child, (in particular). Her love for her child is balanced with her love for herself as a fully fledged human with a solid identity prior to motherhood and this tension keeps her delving into what motherhood means for HER selfhood in a way that others who (perhaps) have children in their teens or early 20s maybe don’t experience. That made this more relatable to me as someone who isn’t a mother.
This is my own bias:
I will say that I struggle with privileged women narratives because they have ALL the resources available to them and still manage to make their own lives seem so difficult and confusing when they don’t have to be, and that irritates me a little.
This is my own bias:
I will say that I struggle with privileged women narratives because they have ALL the resources available to them and still manage to make their own lives seem so difficult and confusing when they don’t have to be, and that irritates me a little.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Always entertaining and even relatable at times for any women, I think. I love Jessi's humor and honesty. She's such a great narrator / storyteller. Looking forward to her next read.