When's the last time I've sat there laughing out loud? Got some good belly laughs today reading a book I ordered because it looked like fun (and help) to read. It came in the mail this morning and I put my feet up during coffeetime and after. Lu's style of writing is honest and humorous and, in its way, quite philosophical! Though it is about parenting, it is not a lecture or a manual or an ideology, it is a testimony from a woman who is comfortable scrutinizing her own deeper motivations, and even more comfortable acknowledging that ambivalent and contradictory feelings co-exist together.
Where have I been going for laughs? I don't see myself as a humorous person so I have to look around outside myself. Jon Stewart and his Daily Show helpers make me laugh because W.'s administration and the cable news networks kindly provide plenteous material for a comedy show. Dwight and Andy and Stanley and the rest of the crowd in Scranton make me laugh, because those awful awkward moments between adults command giggles to break the ice.
But the laughing I did today was more healing than derisive or "cringe-ive" because I could laugh at myself as a new mom with Lu, find companionship in her insights about how fear, performance, identity, and anxiety can turn mommy life into a minefield, and feel validated in knowing that many new moms find themselves thinking if not saying contradictions like these to their husbands during that first year of baby-world: "Don't touch me!" "Why aren't you touching me?" and "I know what the baby needs, I'm with him all day." "What do you think the baby needs, you are his father!" and "Why don't you ask me about my day?" "What do you think I did today, market analysis?"
Loving the book. It is wise AND hilarious. Lu Hanessian's Let the Baby Drive
2 comments:
Hi Jess, Hey - good to read your thoughts on the book - Let the Baby Drive! I can see you sitting there having a good laugh! Being a new mom definitely brings out all those ambivalent feelings. We (Affie and Greta)can relate to that as "experience" mothers. The good thing is - and it's only by the grace of God I'm sure - our children survived in spite of our theories on child raising. Douwe looks like a real sweet boy from the pictures and I'm sure you are enjoying each new stage he already goes through as they change so quickly. I'm enjoying that through the twins - Alex and Mya - as they are now taking their first steps - saying their first words. Enjoy each new day and the surprises it brings!!
We're off to church now - having a great time here in Boise!!
Love from Aunt Affie - and the rest too!!
Sounds like a great book! I feel the same way about laughter -- my job isn't really making me laugh these days becuase of the attitudes of my seniors, so I've been intentionally turning to things that I know will be funny (like "the office"). Could a non-mother read it and enjoy it? :)
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