When Did I Get Like This?: The Screamer, the Worrier, the Dinosaur-chicken-nugget-buyer, and Other Mothers I Swore I'd Never be - Hardcover

Amy Wilson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061956953 ISBN 13: 9780061956959

Publisher: William Morrow, 2010

Synopsis

Amy Wilson and her husband were delighted when they learned she was finally pregnant. With great expectation, Amy began to plan and prepare for the arrival of their first child, only to be met with a million and one decisions and twice that number in words of advice. Everything from the birth plan going forward was like one big, terrifying multiple choice exam, each question overshadowed by: Don't you want what's best for your child? Seven years and three kids later, Amy still has one overriding daily thought: I suck at this. What kind of mother feeds her kids dinosaur chicken nuggets? Three times a week? What kind of mother let's hand washing after using the toilet slide, as long as it was just Number One? Amy says, over the last seven years of long days with little children, I have certainly had many moments of joy, calm, and peaceful reverie. This book is about the other moments. "When Did I Get Like This?", written in short chapters so busy mothers can enjoy, is a funny, endearing celebration of the modern mother's quest to provide what is best for her kids in the age of too many options.

About this title

Review:

“Wilson’s got a light comic touch, but also traffics unflinchingly in the gross and the sad.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“When Did I Get Like This? is a funny, heartwarming account by [a] frazzled young mother of three. This book will help [new mothers] remember that the worst day with children is better than the best day without them.” (The Washington Post)

“Amy Wilson’s hilarious, tender memoir of all the ways her children drive her crazy--and she drives herself crazy--had me laughing out loud with recognition. She captures the small moments of motherhood in a way that is both funny and thought-provoking.” (Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project)

“An honest, personal, and often hilarious collection of short, beautifully written chapters. As entertaining as it is reassuring.” (Christie Mellor, author of The Three-Martini Playdate)

“Reading Amy Wilson’s book is like meeting your favorite new mom friend: She’s whip-smart, charming, enviably capable but as self-doubting as the rest of us, and very, very funny.” (Pamela Paul, author of Parenting, Inc.)

“Like Annie Hall wearing a nursing bra!” (New York Times (on the stage play))

From the Back Cover:

When Did I Get Like This? is the hilarious story of one mother's struggle to shrug off the ridiculous standards of modern parenting, and remember how to enjoy her children

Over the last seven years of long days with little children, I have had many moments of joy, calm, and peaceful reverie.

This book is about the other moments.

Before I became a mother, failing at something did not shake my fundamental belief in my capabilities as a human being. But now that I am the mother of three children under the age of seven, I have one overriding daily thought: I suck at this.

What kind of mother feeds her kids dinosaur chicken nuggets? Three times a week? What kind of mother lets hand washing after using the toilet slide, as long as it was just Number One? And then I wonder: When did I get like this? Why do I doubt my parenting abilities, day after day? Why does motherhood, a job as old as Eve, have me teetering daily on the edge of sanity?

With each new stage of motherhood, I tell myself I will never again be suckered by the question, "Don't you want what's best for your children?" And yet, time after time, I am. Sometimes, I am right to obsess. Other times, the record will show, it has been distinctly counterproductive.

I'm working on it . . .

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061956953
• ISBN 13: 9780061956959
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272