false 61896973 176683 5664839 0385527934 9780385527934 522 241 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255649245m/5664839.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5664839.Bad_Mother_A_Chronicle_of_Maternal_Crimes_Minor_Calamities_and_Occasional_Moments_of_Grace 55640 3.51 2845 586 2 0 false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 09:23:42 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 09:23:42 -0700 2009
After listening to Michael Lewis promoting his new book Home Game just about everywhere, I remembered the envy I felt in the first year of parenthood toward my husband's easy claim to being a good father. Within the first 24 hours of our son's life, he had already been more "hands-on" than his own father had been over a lifetime. Brian is a great father, and would be even if the bar were set much higher, but I am often irked that that bar is set SO low.

Ironically, Waldman seems to have been one of those very self-rightous moms who easily criticize others...until recently.

Struggling with where to rate this one. I devoured it in less than a day...so I did enjoy reading it. But I read it with some unease as even Waldman confesses to her tendency to "overshare." The chapter titled Rocketship is heartbreaking. The book basically calls for compassion.

I found the first and last chapters to be most worthwhile, as they deal with the ongoing battle to be a "good mom". I didn't relate at all to her experience as a stay-at-home mom---it is hard to not get my feathers up when the over-privileged talk about certain topics close to my heart (such as what might have been my fav chapter Free To Be You and I, about sharing of household duties in a marriage, and then I remembered her Salon piece where she confessed neither she nor her husband have ever had to make their own bed)...

Probably a great book for a book club/discussion, and while this genre is often a favorite of mine (Quindlan's Living Out Loud, etc), none of the essays seemed especially strong to me.


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