Books have been a huge part of keeping my sanity along the parenting journey. Some have taught me things like how to get a willful child to sleep or to eat something besides Goldfish crackers while others have been purely an escape. This book fits into the latter category and literally made me laugh out loud.
I Don’t Know How She Does It came into my world when I had two children, but had managed to find enough uninterrupted moments to read an entire book besides Goodnight Moon. Although it’s been a while, it made me laugh so hard that it earned a spot as my first book to be reviewed here at Elephant Mamas.
Author Allison Pearson introduces us to Kate Reddy, a British mum just trying to get it right so she isn’t outed by the “Muffia” as a phony. I was sucked right in to her life in the opening scene when Kate, in the middle of the night, is “distressing” a pie so that it won’t look store-bought when it has to go to school the following day for her daughter’s school Christmas party. You’ll traipse through the book along with Kate as she tries to balance her children, her husband, her job, her nanny, her friends, her sexuality and, mostly, her sanity.
I love this book because it shows that we’re all jus
t trying to do our best each and every day. Sometimes it work. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s just hilarious!
The book was made into a movie with Sarah Jessica Parker in 2011 which is still on my long list of movies to watch one day when the kids and husband are all away! Chick flicks are not exactly their cuppa tea. St. Martin’s Press also announced last year that they will be publishing the long awaited sequel.
I’d love to hear your laugh out loud book recommendations in the Comments section below. We all deserve to laugh every day!
I have to admit my laugh out loud books are neither kid friendly nor help with any child rearing realities but Jenny Mollen or Chelsea Handler have kept me up laughing in bed. This is a jusgement free zone?! Right?! Ha!
This recommendation has me curious and will definitely add to my reading list!
Yes! Judgement free zone! A funny book may not teach you how to parent, but it makes you a happy mama which is always a good thing! I think I have Chelsea Handler’s book on my bookshelf. Must pull that one out! And go discover Jenny Mollen… I just remembered another laugh out loud moment. Reading Tina Fey’s book Bossypants!! I was laying in bed in a hotel with one of my kids (age 11ish?) and we were trying to deal with jetlag so we were reading (me) and watching movies (him). In the midst of Tina’s super funny chapter about puberty, he asks “What’s menstruation?” I had forgotten that word was in Ghostbusters and was laughing so hard I couldn’t even answer!