Scary Mom

I just finished a very hilarious book for any mom entitled, 'Confessions of a Scary Mom' by mother of three, Jill Smokler.  She started out writing a blog about her kids and the realities of being a mom, and she soon had a major following of other mom's just like her; real, honest, funny, raw.  She decided to start a new blog that would allow mom's to annonmously confess things and the results were funny, sad, and very real.  The book itself is an easy fun read where each chapter begins with some confessions she has recieved, followed by her own stories of motherhood on a particular subject. 

Anything goes in this book, from confessing your laziness as a mom, to the poor diet you default to when your kids are being a pain.  She tells it like it is and it's very refreshing.  The first chapter had me giggling so much I had to read it when I was alone to keep Greg from saying, 'what? what's so funny?'. 

I think one of the reasons I like this book is that it takes the pressure off of us to look like we have it all together and we know what we're doing.  The confessions she gets are similar to what I feel anyone I know would write, but in a world like ours with Pinterest and DIY cute things everywhere it's hard not to feel pressure to be SuperMom. One mom confesses her kids haven't had a veggie in 3 years, while another confesses her kids have had grilled cheese for lunch everyday for weeks.  I feel oddly refreshed by that and it makes me feel better about my own parenting skills. 

It's a great fun little read, but I would warn against some language in the book and her chapter on "Husbands, the biggest baby of them all" is a little feminist and demeaning to men.  I get what she's saying about men being sick and wives taking care of them like we care for our kids, but she does write like she's the superior being in that home.  Funny but not to be taken too seriously for me, thanks. 

So if you feel like an ego boost on your parenting skills, or a nice down-to-earth look at what's really going on in other people's lives, then check out this book or her blog.