Confessions of a bad Mother by Stephanie Calman

Author: Stephanie Calman

ISBN # 0330438751

Publisher: Macmillan

1^st Published: 2005

307 pages

More comforting than chocolate! More liberating than the pill! Do you feel that other mothers are “doing it properly” while you’re getting it All Wrong? Do you give your children chicken nuggets for supper, herd them into bed and slump down exhausted with a drink? Do you wish there could just, please, be a little less pressure? If you try your best but frequently feel a failure, if you – or your children – are in any way imperfect, then join the club: the Bad Mothers Club. In the aisle by the chill cabinets no one can hear you scream.

As someone who never plans on having children, I could identify with the lead character, and as a fellow sufferer of “when are you going to have children?” from friends and family, I could sympathise too. This autobiographical tale of the most unlikely parents getting it all wrong, yet somehow managing to get it all right at the same time, is absolutely hilarious, proving that you don’t have to be the perfect mother to be a good mother. I was in fits of giggles throughout reading this book, which could have been written for me personally, watching the “joys of motherhood” sending another woman round the twist as she desperately strives to be the best and then, after many a sleepless night and cut corner, a passable parent.

Rating: 7