A review by southern_librarian
Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler by Wade Rouse

fast-paced

2.0

Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler came recommended to me from someone who knows the author. They did a great job selling it as a humorous memoir spilling the dirty secrets behind the curtain at independent schools. Unfortunately, the book fell a little flat. The author does outline his role, both the official and unofficial parts, in a way that showed the attempts at humor. But he ended up making the "Mean Mommies" (his term) so outlandish that they came across as complete caricatures - unbelievable. For example, five of them were described unironically as 100% always every day wearing bright pink. I love the color orange. I don't wear it more than twice a week. It's unrealistic that someone would own a 100% pink wardrobe. I also don't doubt that the author worked really hard at his job, but his descriptions of his colleagues were downright demeaning in his attempt to make his efforts shine. He made his female colleagues especially sound terrible - he goes on at length about their love of "depression desserts" despite his feeling that they could stand to lose a few pounds. 

I've had bad jobs and tough jobs, but I know that if you want to keep moving forward you've got to find the positive in yourself and your contributions. You don't need to step on top of others to get to a better place. It is a good thing that the author has a quite successful writing career now, because I doubt he could return to the independent school realm. He even admits to outright potentially-harmful lies, like consistently purchasing full-fat milk lattes for a Mean Mommy instead of her requested skinny latte.

I will end by saying that I could definitely tell where the author tried for humor. I did smile a little here and there through the book. I would definitely try another of his nonfiction works in the future... but I'm going to need a little break first.