The Mommy Group
Freaking Out, Finding Friends, and Surviving the Happiest Time of Our Lives
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“Elizabeth Isadora Gold writes vividly and humorously about the trials and trip-outs of new-motherhood.” —The New Yorker
“If you only read one parenting book this year, make it The Mommy Group...This book is incisive, insightful, and downright delightful. I did not mean for that to rhyme” —Adam Mansbach, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Go the F*ck to Sleep
In 2010, seven women met in Brooklyn, New York, to form a Mommy Group. Over coffee, croissants, wine, and the occasional baby carrot, they commiserated about typical new-mother issues: difficult births, babies who slept in ten-minute increments, and breast pumps that talked back in the middle of the night. And then things got complicated.
Elizabeth and Melissa suffered from postpartum depression and anxiety. Jane’s daughter was diagnosed with developmental delays. Anna’s husband left her when their baby was two weeks old. Through it all, the Mommy Group laughed, supported, and learned lessons from one another that the myriad “experts” hadn’t delivered.
The journalist of the bunch—author Elizabeth Isadora Gold—reached out to other Mommy Groups around the country and found that similar bonds were forming far beyond brownstone Brooklyn. In fact, mothers across all class, geographic, and racial boundaries appear to be searching for the same thing: a way to be strong, loving, engaged parents “while retaining—or remaking—our Selves.”
A witty, relatable, and honest look at the realities of parenthood today, The Mommy Group is a companion that will help any mom feel understood and empowered, and keep her laughing all the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gold's chronicle of her Park Slope support group's struggles with C-sections, breast pumps, daycare, sleep training, child-free friends, and birthday parties, among other stressors, will have limited appeal to readers not dealing with the same. Nevertheless, her main assertion is on point: finding and building relationships with peers is critical for new mothers in an era when many no longer have preexisting support networks. This is more than a flippant celebration of the power of women together, thanks to frank, personal sharing about challenging topics like postpartum anxiety, as well as unvarnished portraits of Gold's friends and their children. Her brief nods to the role of mommy groups in communities less affluent than her own hip Brooklyn circle, and to the politics of childcare rights, come across as perfunctory and lacking in insight. However, anyone familiar with parenting blogs will be thankful that Gold avoids the topic of "mommy wars" over different parenting styles, even while explaining how to find a support group that's the right fit. She is also restrained in offering specific parenting and child development advice, keeping the focus on mothers' emotional well-being.