Afterbirth: Stories You Won't Read In A Parenting Magazine (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
i gave this book an extra star for being so polarizing. it seems like people either love it or hate it, & most of the people who hate it can't resist calling the authors drug addicts, sluts, & borderline child abusers. i guess maybe they didn't really know what they were getting themselves into, but...seriously, these are not cutesy "my baby is the light of my life/you don't know love until you have a baby" stories. they're the warts-&-all i-can't-believe-that-just-happened stories. honestly, i have but a dim recollection of most of these stories as more than two months have passed since i read the book, & i am learning to accept that essay collections just don't stay with me no matter how wonderful they are. but i always enjoy reading embarrassing/dark/borderline inappropriate stories about parenting. who decided that the second a lady gets nocked up, she has to be all sweetness & light? when i had my 12-week doppler scan (listening to the heartbeat), the doctor told me that i had a "good, sweet" little baby in there that wanted me to hear its heartbeat right away & know that it was doing great. i told her that we didn't know that & "the baby might be evil". she was surprisingly shocked. i thought it was weird. she's an obstetrician. surely she's heard worse than that in the delivery room. isn't it better to avoid taking this whole parenting lark too seriously? so if you're the kind of person that likes parenting stories but doesn't subscribe to the belief that your child will be scarred for life if you cuss in front of it now & again, it might be worth checking out this book. if, however, you are the kind of person who thinks that mothers need to start wearing twin sets & joining the junior league as soon as they discover they are pregant, give this one a wide berth. This book was so offensive to me I only got about halfway through it. Each essay had some element or perspective that was just so counter to my beliefs (pro-cry it out, pro-circumcision, doing drugs on the counter while your baby sleeps, etc) that I couldn't find any humor in them or empathy for the people writing them. I can't even re-gift the book because everyone I know would find the essays deeply offensive, too.
What do You think about Afterbirth: Stories You Won't Read In A Parenting Magazine (2009)?
Interesting look at parenting from many mothers' perspectives and through their experiences.
—nic
Really funny! A great read for any parent. :)
—Sohail
"The Gay Straight Dad," by Mark Hudis!
—medi101
Some of these essays are hilarious.
—Leeannalovesickk
