Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace
- ISBN13: 9780385527934
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In the tradition of recent hits like The Bitch in the House and Perfect Madness comes a hilarious and controversial book that every woman will have an opinion about, written by America’s most outrageous writer.
In our mothers’ day there were good mothers, neglectful mothers, and occasionally great mothers.
Today we have only Bad Mothers.
If you work, you’re neglectful; if you stay home, you’re smothering. If you discipline, … More >>
Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace
This book is not what I expected, as a mother of a 2 year old boy; I looked for some understanding, guidelines in motherhood. Since the author is a mother of 4 children I thought she might help me become more tolerant, guilt free mother. In the beginning of the book I admired her, she was a successful woman, but the more I read the more shocked I became.
The true ‘I’ of the author came later in the book. She is truly selfish human being constantly giving excuses for her actions. She is definitely not an example to follow. I could not finish the book because I was so outraged by her behavior. It started with the abortion, she had a supportive husband, not even 100% chance of being something wrong with the baby, the day before the abortion she wrote she felt the baby moving and was giving him the last time of his live, I really did not expect she will go with it.
She also wrote in high school she was an outcast so she became slut to be more popular. This can tell that she constantly has a need to be recognized and no matter if in positive or negative way she needs to be talked about. This time the price is her family/children. At their cost she publishes intimate parts of their life. I can not even describe what a miserable person she is.
Also, she is really sad women; she writes she has a bipolar disorder. (Honestly, no wonder with her conciseness.) Listen a lot of people have there ups or downs, and probably all of us will be diagnosed with some psychological disorder. I tell her she needs some faith in her live not medication. She was taking her medication when she was pregnant; I tell you don’t need to have education to know that drug can be harmful to the fetus. I remember I had a sever toothache during my pregnancy I did not take any pain relief afraid of harming the baby. I do not trust doctors 100% and I evaluate positive and negative outcomes. There are many more things that I couldn’t believe someone would write and expect understanding and pity.
I will sell this book for very cheap just to get rid of my home, and so I do not contribute to her financial success. For those mothers who look to understand motherhood and their actions this book is truly paretic, full of excuses and justifications for her selfish behavior. It’s really waste of time to read about someone like her.
My best friend who is very religious gave me a book that was truly opposite of that one. I was not a good Christian but after I read my friend’s book about Gloria Polo I realized that if I want to be truly happy in life and in everything I do I need to pray for it.I believe everyone needs to improve spirituality to be happy in life.
Rating: 1 / 5
Ayelet a bad mother? Oh, come on. The only really bad mothering she did is to have FOUR kids in the first place. Has she never heard about Zero Population Growth? Granted she and her fabulous husband (one of my favorite modern writers) are intelligent and well off and so these children should be a productive addition to society but still… two is enough.
She IS a talented writer (I think Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is brilliant) but I am put off by her solipsism. I had to snort when she accused a talk show host of stealing her line about “loose skin like origami”. (Hey, Ayelet, it wasn’t that unique.) She is living a grand life complete with famous people and terrific vacations and I am genuinely happy for her but her attempts at humility lack veracity. She wants to pretend to be a average mother but she is certainly not. I really wanted to read something BAD that she had done. Something that would make those moms who left the kid in the parking lot and the cops got called feel like they are not alone. Feeling horrible about having an abortion because your fetus failed a chromosome test is normal but not BAD, unless you are a right to lifer. And I also had a rough time imagining that a girl who began having unprotected sex at 14 and was by her own admission quite promiscuous until she met Michael could have possibly never gotten pregnant before. Never had a previous abortion? Hard to believe.
There are some amusing anecdotes in this book but not much to hold on to after you read it. It is a fluff ball of a memoir. I’d like to have a couple of margaritas with her and share the real dirt. I bet it’s there.
Rating: 2 / 5
Don’t wast your time reading this book. The author tell us way too much information about her life. Is she a BAD mother? YES! The thought that her children would read this very narcisstic memoir(?) makes me cringe.
Rating: 1 / 5
This is the first time I have ever read a book by Ayelet Waldman. I loved her honesty. The love that she has for her children is so raw and honest that at times you almost feel that you’re invading their privacy but it is because of this honesty that you begin to understand that for everything mothers do for their children they do it because of love. Right or wrong, there are really very few bad mothers, only mothers who try in their own way to be a ‘good’ mother. She holds nothing back as she shares her family’s decision in favor of an abortion and also of the diagnosis of bipolar disease that runs in her family. This book opens the door to understanding more about us as mothers.
Rating: 5 / 5
I thought this book looked interesting since every kid now thinks their mom is a bad mother in some form or fashion. When I started reading it I knew right away this was a book from a Yenta! She knows it all, she hits the nail on the head, its funny, real, and exactly what it should be, This is a light enjoyable read and I recommend it.
Rating: 4 / 5