I guess I should have known not to except sunshine and butterflies from a book titled People I Want to Punch in the Throat, but good lord, does this woman bitch a lot.
“What is wrong with you? Does everything need to be a competition? Does your kid need to win everything she does? Is winning the only way for her to develop self-worth?”
The book starts off great — Jen’s story about how she met her husband (in a chat room in the 1990s) cracked me up, and introduced me to their brand of weirdness. And some of the stories that focused just on her family were pretty good. The chapter where her six year old daughter has Jen half convinced that Hubby is having an affair (after all, can he prove where he went all day) was hysterical. But most of the stories fall into that category of bashing on moms who have kids with goofy names that only eat organic. Look, I don’t parent like that. But it doesn’t bother me that people do. If you want to name your Kale and feed him kale, go for it. As long as everyone’s happy and healthy — I feel like there are worse things in the world. Maybe it’s because my kids are still pre-K and I haven’t had to deal with these moms much, and that’s why I don’t care. But it just feels like a cheap way to get laughs.
This is likely not my cup of tea either. Although it reminds me of this post from McSweeneys (goes to re-read). YES.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/jamie-and-jeffs-note-to-the-babysitter
It’s funny how when you put frustrations with other people like these into writing, you think you are telling someone who they are, when really all you are doing is showing who you are. Even if I agree with you, it seems small.