It’s funny how two small pink lines can change your life. Things will never be the same again. A lifetime of “Mum, mum, mum, MUM!” awaits you as does your ever growing tolerance of Peppa Pig and Baby Shark as you drink cup after cup of cold tea. Whether you encounter motherhood though labour, c-section, adopting or becoming a step parent, you know within seconds that it is the best and most awful job in the world.
Happy Mothers’ day dear readers! I hope you are all keeping well in these strange times. Today I am on the blog tour for The Best, Most Awful Job Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood (19 March 2020) Edited By Katherine May. A big thank you to the publishers Elliott & Thompson for my copy to review, always appreciated. Also to the amazing Anne for the invite, thank you!
About The Author
Katherine May is an author of fiction and memoir whose most recent works have shown a willingness to deal frankly with the more ambiguous aspects of parenting. In The Electricity of Every Living Thing she explored the challenges – and joys – of being an autistic mother, and sparked a debate about the right of mothers to ask for solitude. In the forthcoming Wintering, she looks at the ways in which parenting can lead to periods of isolation and stress. She lives with her husband and son in Whitstable, Kent.
The Best, Most Awful Job Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood
What does it mean to be a mother?
Twenty writers speak out in this searingly honest, diverse and powerful collection.
Motherhood is life-changing. Disorientating, overwhelming, intense on every level, it can leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about yourself. Yet despite more women speaking out in recent years about the reality of their experiences – good, bad and in-between – all too often it’s the same stories getting told, while key parts of the maternal experience still remain unspeakable and unseen. There are a million different ways to be a mother, yet the vision we see in books, on screen and online overwhelmingly fails to represent this commonplace yet extraordinary experience for most of us. It’s time to broaden the conversation.
The Best, Most Awful Job is a deeply personal collection about motherhood in all its raw, heart-wrenching, gloriously impossible forms. Overturning assumptions, breaking down myths, shattering stereotypes, it challenges perceptions of what it means to be a mother.
Pulsating with energy and emotion, and covering deeply personal stories The Best, Most Awful Job brings together a diverse range of bold and brilliant writers and asks you to listen.
My Review
Motherhood is a strange one. It’s beautiful and ugly all at the same time. It’s hard to explain. You love your children and would kill for them but at the same time, you really, really wish they would just shut the fu*k up and give you five minutes peace.
This book is a breath of fresh air in the unrealistic expectations that dominates social media. The ever judging eye of mum forums and opinions of others suffocate you and only confirm your fear that you are a failure. And honestly dear reader, who needs that? No one. Especially mums. To be a mum today comes with endless comments about how your child is not walking, talking, eating, sleeping, doing anything at the designated milestones. Your every move is dissected and scrutinised which only amplifies your worry. It has never been more daunting to be a mother. But do not despair as this book has got your back, you no longer need to feel alone in the ongoing struggle of motherhood. Now is the time to be honest and reveal the true face of motherhood and my word is it magnificent dear reader.
I LOVED reading this book. The brutal, messy and complicated truth of being a mum is all too relatable. Each writer draws on their own personal experience of motherhood. They talk openly and honestly not sugar coating the reality of raising little monsters. It is such a comfort to read of others who have felt and been in the same dark place as yourself. It makes you question why are we so ashamed of being honest of how terrible yet rewarding a job it is? Why do we pretend that we have our sh*t together when we obviously don’t. I am all for positivity and focusing on the good but I also believe in balance. You can’t have the good without the bad and more than often it’s the bad that gets shoved under the bed out of sight. It’s a rare sight to see a mum admit that they had to put the tv on for a good few hours just to get some peace or that a chocolate breakfast was the only option that morning as they had run out of cereal and fruit. Chocolate orange is still technically a fruit right? The point being that this book opens the door to these rarely talked about experiences. You feel relief as they talk to you about how actually their mothering was good enough. That we don’t need to apologise and to stop with the self doubt.
The variety of experiences explored in this book is magnifique. To name just a few; the reader sees the hardships of being a single parent, adopting a baby, being a disabled mum and the conflict in teaching your children their Pakistani heritage. It’s relatable and speaks to all mums everywhere. More books, stories and voices are needed like this. A big eye opener to reality and to stop trying to squeeze into something we were never, ever designed to slot into. We don’t need to wear capes to feel like a super-mum, we just need to stop being so harsh on ourselves and get off social media, it’s not real life. This is. Loud, messy, and unpredictable but always bursting with love.
This is not a book about self-sacrificing, pure-of-heart, bleeding-breast saints, but neither is it a book about how terrible we all are, how degraded, how seethingly desperate for gin. It’s about the strange places that love takes us, the peculiar feelings it evokes, and the winding paths we tread. It’s a snapshot of reality, told in twenty dazzling voices; the best job in the world, and simultaneously the most awful. Because motherhood is everything at once: pleasure and pain, anger and tenderness, light and shade. In short, true love.
I give The Best, Most Awful Job Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood Edited by Katherine May a Five out of Five paw rating.
Love beats strongly at the heart of this book. It’s complex, annoying, stressed, sleep deprived and magical. A constant ride of up and down, never knowing when the tide will turn from a gentle calm to a raging storm.
I can’t recommend this book enough, it’s that much needed reassuring hug as you cry into your cup of tea that you are enough, you are doing a great job and have got this. Some days are worse then others but remember that no one knows what they are doing. Most are just playing along if not faking it. Let’s put a stop to the judging, the overbearing opinions and just do what we do best, be mums.
Don’t forget to follow the rest of the blog tour, dates below, enjoy!
Links
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Thanks Emma xx