According to Andrea Buchanan, “mother shock” is the state in which many new parents exist during those first confusing, chaotic, and often comical years of parenting. It is the clash between expectation and result, theory and reality; a twilight zone of 24-hour-a-day living where life is no longer neatly divided into day and night. It is the stress of trying to acclimate quickly to the immediacy of mothering; of formulating a new conception of oneself, one’s role in the family and in the world; of shouldering a fearful new level of responsibility and a new delegation of domestic duties. In this much-needed and delightfully funny collection, Buchanan shares the insight she gains as she moves through the stages of mother shock. From “Fear of the Double Stroller” and “Confessions of a Bottle Feeder” to “I’m an Idiot” and “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Playgroup,” Buchanan details the unimaginably difficult and unbelievably rewarding process of becoming a mother. Spanning the first three years of her daughter’s life, these amusing ruminations on mothering will strike a chord with every new mother.
A great read for any new mom! This is the book you'll want to buy for all of your friends who are new moms. The books is entertaining and a breath of fresh air. It allows one to see that all moms are human and all of the emotions that go along with motherhood are normal. So many women feel guilty if they express any negative emotions with motherhood, but Andrea Buchanan allows us to laugh at ourselves and humbly see our own humanness.
An honest approach to motherhood It's helpful to read this book to understand the "other" moments of motherhood that we rarely talk about.
A must read for every new mother I must confess that since first reading this book, I have come to know the author and she is every bit as lovely and funny as she comes off on the page -- I like my biases to be transparent. But this is a book that is very close to my heart. I read it when I was suffering from post partum depression and felt that I was the only woman in the world who did not feel totally fulfilled 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by being a mother. Without reading Andi's truthful account of her own mother shock, I would likely be sitting in a padded room somewhere. This book is funny and heartfelt and beautiful. I recommend it for every new mother.
Anne Lamott's "Operating Instructions" is much better. I read a lot of books about motherhood before I had my son, while I was trying to figure out whether it would be really worth it. (ie., Is it as great as mothers always say it is, or are they just trying to bring happy motherless women into the baby pit with them?) I am still interested in reading about motherhood even though I have taken the plunge because I am still interested in finding words that describe the experience accurately. (It really IS wonderful but it sort of consumes you too.) Reviews seemed to indicate that this book had a revealing confessional honesty but I didn't find anything new here and it wasn't particulary well written. Anne Lamott's "Operating Instructions - Diary of My Son's First Year" contains many more "Yes! So true." moments and is more funny, and touching and beautifully written. To put it more succinctly, I laughed and bawled several times while reading "Operating Instructions" but this was kind of a bore.
Best book I've read as a new Mama As a new mom of a 4-month old baby, I have been overwhelmed (to say the least) at the transformation of my own personality when becoming a "mama". I felt that Buchanan's book was a beautifully honest articulation of the things that many new moms feel when they become parents. It offers a few suggestions on coping strategies, but its main strength is its reassurance that others feel as I sometimes do about the workload (both physical and mental) of mothering, and that it is ok not to love every minute of it, but that you can still be a 'good' mom if you love "every (other) minute of it." Kudos to Buchanan for her bravery in writing about such a personal experience and for getting it out there so others can feel validated in their thoughts on becoming a mother, too.
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