I Wear the Maternity Pants in This Family
Susan Konig's Hilarious Take on Motherhood in Short Essays
Susan Konig is pregnant. At five, eight and twelve years old, her three children have all reached or surpassed school age, and she has just dropped them off at the bus stop for the first day of school. Dreaming of days spend idly and alone -- doing volunteer work, writing another book, going to the gym -- she discovers that life has other plans for her. Six and a half minutes into this life she is dreaming about, she starts to feel a little funny, does some quick calculations, and realizes that she is pregnant. Again. At forty three years old.
Keeping it Real
Konig's second book is a hilarious look at the reality of motherhood. It consists of forty four vignettes, each more funny than the last, about the struggles she, her comedian husband, and her four children endure on a daily basis.
At the beginning of the book, Konig is coping with the news of her surprise pregnancy and figuring out ways to adjust. She decides that, instead of staying home full time with the new baby, she will place him in day care for part of the time because, frankly, after three kids, she could use the help. When she starts looking for a day care provider, she discovers it might not be as easy as she thought. One provider had a gaggle of smokers loitering outside; when they're outside smoking, she wondered, who is inside with the kids? Another had no smokers, but instead she found a woman unconscious on the playground. Apparently she had fainted from the heat. Ultimately, she decided against sending the baby to day care that month.
The book continues in this vein, looking at motherhood in a candid and laugh out loud funny way.
Mothers' Days
Readers will appreciate the honesty and humor Konig uses to describe situations that many mothers face on a daily basis. Most chapters are short, many just three or four pages long, so busy moms and other readers can get through a chapter or two at a time without feeling lost the next time they pick up the book again. However, it's also pleasant to read several chapters at a time and appreciate the momentum that builds over several of the related vignettes and as the children progress.
Overall the book is a funny and true to life look at the reality of motherhood.
About the Author
Susan Konig co-hosts a daily radio show "Speak Now" with her husband, Emmy Award-winning comedian Dave Konig on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Catholic Channel. She is a regular columnist for Catholic Digest and National Review Online. Her articles and essays have appeared in many national publications including Ladies' Home Journal, Travel & Leisure, First for Women and Parade.
I Wear the Maternity Pants in This Family is her second book. Why Animals Sleep So Close to the Road (and Other Lies I Tell My Children) is her first.
Konig, Susan
I Wear the Maternity Pants in This Family
New York, St. Martin's Press, August 21, 2007
I Wear the Maternity Pants in This Family
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