Welcome to Litsy!

Being a parent is a lot like having a dream. Some of it isn‘t very nice. Most of it, even when it‘s ugly, is beautiful 👶🏻❤️

I will say that one of the most useful developments in my personality…has been a generalized giving of way fewer fucks, especially about what I look like; a stubborn, feral sense of being too focused on keeping a little totally dependent person alive allows me to mostly disengage from concerns about my own appearance 🪞

The opening and closing essays are pretty great. Klein shares the essence of motherhood as a hero‘s journey. She talks about many of the darker, daunting moments in motherhood that mothers rarely admit and I appreciated that. But somewhere in the middle she lost me a bit and I struggled to relate at all.
So some of it is great and some of it not as much? The writing had flashes of brilliance amidst a bit too much whining. I have mixed feelings.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Klein waxes honestly on new motherhood, her anxieties and cluelessness, and the struggle to feel comfortable in her body. Some readers will identify, some won‘t, and that‘s okay. I‘m tired of reviewers claiming that privileged white people aren‘t allowed to *gasp* have problems nor write about them. Memoir Police: Tell me, what are the parameters for writing about personal experiences? There are none? Stop tearing other women down.

I strongly disliked her first essay collection (tagged ⬇️), so I almost passed on this one, but it was actually pretty funny. Klein writes humorously about the first five years raising her only child in her early 40s. Is it a bit rich white famous people problems? Sure, but I still laughed. Her essays on toilet training and finding the right clothes with a mom bod were especially funny. A good #BorrowNotBuy #audiobook.