Amateur hour : motherhood in essays and swear words

Harrington, Kimberly, author.

First edition.

Book

New York : Harper Perennial, [2018]

©2018

x, 308 pages ; 21 cm

Welcome to essayist Kimberly Harrington's poetic and funny world of motherhood, womanhood, and humanhood, not necessarily in that order. It's a place of loud parenting, fierce loving, too much social media, and occasional inner monologues where timeless debates are resolved such as Pro/Con: Caving to PTO Bake Sale Pressure ("PRO: Skim the crappiest brownies for myself. CON: They're really crappy.") With accessibility and wit, she captures the emotions around parenthood in artful and earnest ways, highlighting this time in the middle--midlife, the middle years of childhood, how women are stuck in the middle of so much. It's a place of elation, exhaustion, and time whipping past at warp speed. Finally, it's a quiet space to consider the girl you were, the mother you are, and the woman you are always becoming.

Motherhood.

Mothers.

Motherhood -- Humor.

Mothers -- Humor.

Humor.

First. I don't want to be dying in order to tell you these things -- Jobs. Fuck. This. List. ; Job description for the dumbest job ever ; The Super Bowl of interruptions ; I am the one woman who has it all ; Undone ; Dear stay-at-home moms and working moms, you're both right -- Time-out. Just what I wanted, a whole twenty-four hours of recognition once a year ; "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy": revised and expanded -- Vows. Tiny losses ; If you love your grandparents, go visit them ; Let's have the wedding later ; It's complicated -- Time-out. Your cute wedding hashtags twenty years later ; Kids, it's time you know the truth--your mother is a real piece of work -- Showdowns. Overshare ; Thank you for including me on this meal train but unfortunately I'm a horrible person ; Your participation trophies are bullshit ; September 17, 2010: the day I turned the car around ; The ghosts of Halloweens past -- Time-out. Radiohead song or accurate description of my parenting? ; Are you sure there isn't something else I can do before the end of the school year? -- Schools. The walls that define us ; Pro/con: caving to PTO bake sale pressure ; The punching season ; Please don't get murdered at school today ; I don't care if you go to college -- Time-out. what do yo think of my son's senior picture that was shot by Annie Leibovitz? ; Anne-Marie Slaughter is my safety word -- Bodies. Who does that? ; If you can touch it ; As young as we'll ever be ; Hot-ass chicks ; Ashes to ashes -- Time-out. Fifty-one things you should never say to a mother ever ; Is there a parenting expert on this plane? -- Freedoms. Do you have faith in me? ; Thirteen with duds ; Just because you can, doesn't mean you should -- Last. You are all the joy ; When I die.

9780062838742